The Fire Within: The Fire Witch Incident
by The Mayor of Ninjago City
Summary: A few weeks before Kai and Samantha's wedding, Kai, Cole, and Zane go on a mission to help battle raging forest fires. But what happens when Kai disappears during the mission, and the ninja team and Sam set out to determine what happened to him? This story is a part of the "The Fire Within" series, which was originated by measuremesky. She gave me permission to use her material.
1. A Hot Summer Afternoon

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Howdy! This is The Mayor of Ninjago City with a brand new story called _The Fire Within: The Fire Witch Incident_. This tale features our favorite ninja team as they face a new villain!**

 **This short story is the latest installment in the _The Fire Within_ series, which was originated by the author measuremesky when she began her first Ninjago fanfic _The Fire Within_. That fanfic, along with her follow-up story _A Degree in Danger_ , can be found on this website. Measuremesky is a family member of mine, and she gave me permission to use her material to write my own contributions to the _The Fire Within_ series. Check out my profile page for a list of titles.**

 **The story you are about to read below takes place just three months after my recently completed fanfic _The Fire Within: Trouble in Paradise_. And before I go further, I wish to thank lovesgod12, AveXCninja12, TitaniumMasterOfAquaLightning, and Naruby7 for your wonderful comments on the final chapter of my Paradise tale. Hugs of appreciation to you all!**

 **In this new tale, Kai and Samantha are preparing for their upcoming wedding, which is now less than two months away. But the couple must temporarily be separated when Kai, Cole, and Zane are assigned to a mission to help the Ninjago Department of Natural Resources battle raging forest fires in Ninjago's mountain region. These fires have been caused by the extremely hot and dry weather that has plagued all of Ninjago this summer. But Kai disappears during the mission, and the ninja team and Sam set out to determine what happened to him. They soon find themselves facing the scary source of the meteorological misery...**

 **Haven't yet decided on a posting schedule for this story.**

 **References to events in Chapters 29 and 31 in measuremesky's _The Fire Within_ are present in the reading below. Hope you enjoy this first chapter!**

* * *

 **Chapter 1 - A Hot Summer Afternoon**

It was a miserably hot afternoon in late June, so Samantha Miller was grateful to be sitting in the air-conditioned dining room area of the Bounty as she addressed wedding invitations. In about seven weeks she would be marrying Kai Smith, a Protector of Ninjago and the ninja of fire. Because of Kai's status as an official Protector, many Ninjago dignitaries were going to be invited to the ceremony.

Sam understood that, as the bride of a ninja, her wedding was going to be a little more public than that of the bride of a civilian. Though she was a rather private person, she would tolerate being at the center of Ninjago society for a day because she loved Kai very much. She looked forward to the post-ceremony dinner, which would be a much smaller and simpler affair, as she and her parents were ordinary middle class folks from a distant village in the south of Ninjago.

Beyond the wedding day itself, Sam looked forward to her future life with Kai. They would be living in a newly built cottage which had been constructed using some of the money Kai inherited from his parents, who had operated a blacksmith shop. The cottage sat about a hundred yards away from the current resting place of the Bounty, on a somewhat large parcel of land recently purchased by Sensei Wu. Sensei was making plans to build and operate a tea shop on the recently purchased parcel of land when he retired.

Kai and Sam knew that living off the Bounty, but close to it, would be the best living arrangement for them. Because Sam would be continuing to live the life of a civilian - she planned to finish college at Ninjago University and then get a job in her field of study - she needed a place she could live in and continue to do those things, should the Bounty need to be deployed for any reason. Kai also thought Sam should live off the Bounty because he wanted to minimize her exposure to dangerous situations involving enemies of Ninjago.

And, of course, living off the Bounty would afford the young married couple some extra privacy.

But because they would still be living close to the Bounty, Kai could easily continue to train with his teammates at any time of day or night as necessary and be an effective Protector of Ninjago. And Kai and Sam had decided to eat most of their dinners with the rest of the team in order to help maintain the strong team bond.

Sam, who was living on the Bounty this summer instead of in her hometown in order to prepare for the wedding, was already taking her turn in the Bounty's kitchen to prepare dinner two nights of the week, rotating with Nya and Zane. Last summer, when she had lived on the Bounty during her internship at Borg Industries here in Ninjago City, she prepared two meals per week as part of the rental agreement she had made with Sensei Wu. So she was already used to cooking for the large group.

Tonight was one of Sam's scheduled nights to prepare dinner. She was planning to cook seasoned pork chops in slow cookers so as to avoid turning on the oven in the Bounty's kitchen on this hot summer day. The recipe was one she had found in a magazine. She liked to find and try out new pork chop recipes. Kai had told her last summer - it was actually on the day he tried to kiss her for the first time - that he liked pork chops.

Sam checked the large kitchen clock, which could be seen from the dining room area. The time was getting to be 2:30, so she decided to start preparing the slow cookers. But before she did that, she walked over to the window to watch the ninja brothers train on the deck.

The warriors were supposed to ignore distractions during their training, but Kai spotted her and waved. She smiled and waved back.

She felt sorry for the warriors having to conduct their workout in the oppressive heat. They all looked hot and sweaty. She made a mental note to check the supply of cold iced tea in the refrigerator.

Sam entered the empty kitchen, flipping on the light. She also turned on the radio for company. Nya had gone to the library this afternoon, so the bride-to-be was by herself in the Bounty's living quarters.

As Sam verified that the supply of iced tea was adequate, she heard the radio announcer delivering the bottom-of-the-hour news. Once again, he talked about those forest fires raging in the mountains of northwestern Ninjago. The hot and dry weather was affecting all of Ninjago, and every day the number of acres of burned forest was increasing. Sam felt sorry for the people who lived out that way. Some of them were going to be invited to the wedding, and she sincerely hoped that the fires would not prevent them from attending.

Sam got out the three slow cookers from the cabinet. When you were cooking for eight people, five of them being young men who were active and energetic, you needed multiple slow cookers to cook enough food to feed everyone. Measuring, mixing, and applying the various seasonings to the meat was not difficult, just a bit time consuming. Once the slow cookers were filled and turned on, she decided on a side dish, fruit, and vegetable to serve. Next came cleanup of the food preparation area.

Sam stooped down to put the seasonings back in the lower cabinet of the kitchen island just as the ninjas entered the living quarters. When she stood back up, she gave a short scream.

Kai was unexpectedly standing on the other side of the kitchen island, wearing that adorable lopsided grin on his face and waiting to say hello to her.

"You scared me!" Sam exclaimed in laughter. "So you guys are done with training already?"

"Yeah, Sensei took pity on us," Kai answered as he wiped sweat off his forehead with a towel from the training area. His uniform was soaked.

"Well, how about if I pour some iced tea? You guys want some iced tea, too?" she called to the rest of the exhausted ninja brothers who were sprawled over the furniture in the living room.

Responses of gratitude came back her way, so she got out the iced tea pitcher and some glasses and ice.

She served the others first. Then, as she handed Kai his glass of iced tea, he said, "Thanks, Sam! I think you deserve a big hug for this."

She warily eyed his sweaty uniform. "No, that's OK. I don't need a hug."

"Sure ya do!" He set down his glass to chase her as she screeched and ran away to escape his clutches.

It was futile to escape, of course. He cornered her in the hallway and enveloped her in a big sweaty embrace. She was laughing too hard to protest the kiss that followed.

She kissed him back and said, "Go take a shower."

"Can't yet. Jay's going in there now. We drew numbers during practice and I'm after him in line, so you're stuck for a few minutes," he replied, squeezing her tighter.

"Poor me," she chuckled, wrapping her arms around his neck. "Hey, when you're ready, wanna work on addressing the invitations? We could probably get, maybe, two dozen more done before dinner."

"OK, sounds like a plan," he murmured, leaning in to seek her lips once more.

Suddenly, the phone rang in the control room.


	2. Duty Calls

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Thanks to TitaniumMasterOfAquaLightning, lovesgod12, and AveXCninja11 for your encouraging comments on the previous chapter!**

 **The original accounts of past events referenced in the chapter below can be found in** _ **The Fire Within: The Valentine Incident**_ **, Chapters 6 & 7 & 10, and **_**The Fire Within**_ **, Chapter 34.**

 **In the chapter below, we discover what the phone call was about...**

* * *

 **Chapter 2 - Duty Calls**

Cole, who went to answer the ringing phone, spotted the engaged couple kissing down the hall just before he entered the control room, where the phone was located. He smiled, thinking of his own girlfriend, Brooke.

After a few seconds, he emerged from the control room. "The phone's for Sensei. Is he still on the training deck?"

Kai and Sam finished exchanging tokens of affection and turned their attention to the earth ninja. "As far as I know, he's still out there," Kai surmised.

The couple followed Cole back to the main area of the ship's interior, where Kai reunited with his abandoned glass of iced tea. Sensei was found and alerted to the incoming phone call.

Sensei was on the phone for quite a while. Jay, Kai, and even Lloyd had enough time to freshen up before Sensei finally emerged from the control room.

"Sam, what time will the dinner be ready?" he asked.

"About six o'clock, Sensei."

"Then, my pupils, I would like to call a team meeting at 4:30 in the living room. Please be on time, as the subject matter is very important."

"Yes, Sensei," the ninja brothers responded as Sensei left to go to his room.

"Dang, I'd better take my turn in the shower! Not much time left," Cole exclaimed, hurrying off to the bunkroom.

The front door opened and Nya walked in with a stack of books.

"Oh, hi, Nya! How was the library?" Sam greeted her.

"Nice and air conditioned!" Nya laughed.

Since Kai and Sam's plan to work on wedding invitations before dinner was now preempted, they simply set the table early, since Sam was concerned that the clanking of dishes might disrupt Sensei's meeting.

At 4:30, Sam and Nya sat in the kitchen, listening to Sensei tell his assembled pupils in the living room that Mr. Francis, the head of the Ninjago Department of Natural Resources, had called that afternoon. The forest fires that were currently decimating large areas of acreage in the mountainous northwestern region of Ninjago were becoming extremely difficult to contain. Thanks to the lack of rain, the fires had been burning for weeks, depleting fire fighting supplies and draining the energy of the fire fighting personnel. So the department head called to ask for help from the Protectors of Ninjago.

"Therefore, I have decided to send Cole, Zane, and Kai to assist in the fire fighting," Sensei explained. "Cole will help one group of emergency personnel shore up earthen walls as natural barriers against the fires. Zane will help another group douse flames with ice. And Kai will help a third group set backburn fires to counteract the wildfires."

"To burn brush before the wildfires can get to it and use it as fuel?" Kai clarified.

Sensei nodded. "That is correct. Oh, and Kai, I have already telephoned the president of the Ninjago City Park District to explain that on this coming Friday and the one following, you will be unavailable to give your weekly fire safety talk to the Lake Ninjago youth campers."

Last February, Kai had set the Park District's concession building at Lake Ninjago on fire in an attempt to defeat the evil sorcerer Sebastian. Sebastian was captured, and the park district's insurance policy paid for a new building, but the District asked Kai to speak to the different groups of young summer campers about the importance of being careful with fire.

"Thanks for taking care of that, Sensei," Kai replied. "So when do we leave for the mountains?"

"You three will leave on your dragons right after dinner," Sensei said, looking over at Sam.

Upon hearing this, Sam's heart sank. In only about two hours, her fiance was going to leave for a faraway place to do some danger-prone work for who knew how long. But, she told herself, this sort of thing is what she had to expect when she said yes to the red ninja's proposal of marriage on Valentine's Day, so she simply blinked her eyes quickly to stop the welling of her tears.

"I'll get some snacks ready for the trip," she volunteered, trying to keep the quavering out of her voice.

"Thank you, Sam," Sensei responded kindly, for he knew what was going through her mind.

Then he turned to his pupils, the ones who had just been assigned to the mission. "Why don't you three pack your duffel bags before we have dinner? I can tell we have a good meal in store - the pork chops smell delicious."

"All right. After I pack, I'll give Brooke a call to let her know where I'm going," Cole said as he stood up to go to the ninjas' room. Almost a year ago, the black-clad warrior began a relationship with the willowy brunette, who had been Sam's college roommate for the past two years. Now that school was out of session for the summer, however, Brooke was living in her home village, located about three hours away from Ninjago City.

Sam looked over at Kai, who was still sitting in the living room on a beanbag chair. He smiled at her, but she could see the dismay in his eyes. She could tell he did not exactly want to leave her, but he knew that duty called.

* * *

Dinner did indeed turn out to a be a success. Everyone demanded that the new recipe be included in Sam's regular rotation of recipes, and she assured them she would do that. Sam was grateful to Nya for coming up with the idea of serving a simple dessert of strawberries, angel food cake, and whipped cream. Sam had not thought about dessert and, in light of the surprise departure of the three ninja brothers, it seemed especially important to have a special closure to tonight's meal.

Cole, of course, especially appreciated the cake.

As the sun neared the western horizon, the group gathered on the ground in front of the Bounty where the elemental dragons awaited their riders. Hugs and high-fives were exchanged.

After Kai hugged and said goodbye to his sister Nya, he took Sam's hand and led her a few feet away from the group.

"Be careful, Kai!" Sam implored her fiance as she turned to face him, tears welling up in her blue eyes.

"I will," he promised. He gently cupped her face in his hands and sought her lips one more time before departing. Then, stepping back, he flashed her a smile and said, "I love you, Sam!"

"I love you, too, Kai!" Sam replied with a lump in her throat. She let a few tears escape down her cheeks.

Kai hopped onto his elemental dragon and, with a goodbye wink to his fiancee, flew into the western sky with Zane and Cole.

The group who remained behind stood and watched the ninja brothers and their dragons disappear into the golden sunset.


	3. Another Hot Summer Day

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Hello to all! Shoutouts to the following commenters on the previous chapter:**

 **lovesgod12 - Hope your St. Patrick's Day was happy. My family member measuremesky and I are of Irish ancestry, but measuremesky suffered from some food poisoning last weekend. So much for luck of the Irish!**

 **FirstFandomFangirl - You're right! Kai and Sam don't seem to catch a break, whether they are in the 1800s or the 2000s! Speaking of the 1800s, I hope to soon post the next chapter of** _ **The Fire Within a Ninjago Soldier**_ **.**

 **StoryMaker7 - Thank you for your kind words! I'm glad you enjoy the story.**

 **AveXCninja - I know, right? If I were Sam, I know I wouldn't be too happy about Kai going away right now!**

 **Also, thanks to FirstFandomFangirl for commenting on the final chapter of my previous tale,** _ **The Fire Within: Trouble in Paradise.**_

 **Chapter 3 below (as well as the future Chapter 4) chronicles the day after Kai, Cole, and Zane have left for their mission...**

* * *

 **Chapter 3 - Another Hot Summer Day**

The sun had not quite yet risen the next morning when Sam suddenly woke up. She found that she had fallen asleep last night on the sofa in the Bounty's living room while watching TV.

RIIING!

It was the phone in the control room that had wakened her. From her vantage point on the sofa, she watched Jay sleepily shuffle into that room to answer it.

"Hi, Cole," she heard him say.

 _It's the guys!_ Sam jumped up from the sofa and headed into the control room. She caught Jay's eye and waved. He waved back as she settled into a swivel chair for one of the desks, hoping for a chance to speak with Kai once Cole was done talking. In a few minutes she got that chance.

"As a matter of fact, you can tell him his lady is waiting right here. Maybe that makes her a lady-in-waiting?" Jay joked into the phone. "OK, OK, I'll turn the phone over to her. You guys stay safe."

Jay handed the phone to Sam. He waved goodbye as he headed back to bed.

"Hello?" she said into the receiver.

"Hi, Sam!"

"Kai!" she exclaimed, happy to hear his voice. "Did you guys make it there all right?"

"Yeah, we just got in about half an hour ago. The trip was pretty uneventful. By the way, thanks for the snacks!"

"You're welcome," she replied, smiling into the phone. "So where are you calling from now?"

"Right now I'm using the phone in the sleeping quarters. Cole and Zane and I are gonna get a few hours of shuteye before we head out to our assigned areas. We've already met the wildfire combat chief and some of the other guys, and they gave us a briefing on what they'd like us to do. What are you doing up so early?"

"The phone woke me up."

"Oh. You're not too mad, are you?"

"Of course not, silly," Sam chuckled. "When will you be able to call again?"

"The next chance we get won't probably be until midnight, 'cause the three of us are going to be doing 16-hour shifts until these fires get under better control."

"Ugh!" Sam reacted. "You should get to bed now. It sounds like you'll need all the rest you can get!"

"Yeah, I guess I should. I can hear Cole's snores already."

"Well, be careful! Looking forward to your call tonight."

"OK. Love you, Sam!"

"Love you, too, Kai!"

The first rays of the morning sun shone through the window as Sam hung up the phone.

She was happy that Kai had called and that the journey to the mountains went smoothly. She felt a little uneasy about the guys working a 16-hour shift on minimal sleep, but then again, she supposed their endurance level was high due to all their training.

Though Sam normally would be sleeping for another hour, she realized she was now wide awake, so she decided to return to the room she shared with Nya to get ready for the day. Fortunately, Nya was not a light sleeper, so Sam did not worry about waking her up as she prepared, even when she turned on the radio. The radio announcer reported that today's weather would be hot and dry - again.

Sam rolled her eyes.

The top-of-the-hour news reports followed. Sam turned up the radio volume a little so as not to miss any mention of the forest fires.

Indeed, there was a news story about the fires. They had spread to a place called Oracle Mountain.

 _Maybe that's where the guys will be working today_ , she thought.

All the other news stories were also related to the weather conditions. Farmers were having trouble keeping crops watered, so food prices were expected to go up. The water level on Lake Ninjago had decreased by an inch in the last week. And water rationing in Ninjago City was being considered by the city leaders.

Sam turned off the radio. She was already rather depressed by Kai being gone, so she didn't want to hear additional negative news.

Sam decided that in order to keep Kai's absence off her mind today, she would concentrate on getting a lot of items on her to-do list completed. First thing was to finish addressing and mailing those wedding invitations. If she pushed herself, she could have them done by one o'clock.

The bride-to-be decided that after the invitations were mailed, she would then paint the bedroom walls of the cottage, which currently sported only a coat of white primer. A gallon of light tan paint, recently purchased by the couple, was waiting to be used. Light tan would go well with red decorative accents. Now would be a good time to paint the bedroom because the furniture, which the couple had ordered several weeks ago, was scheduled to be delivered in two weeks.

Sam fixed herself a light breakfast, then set up her paperwork area at one end of the dining room table so that the others could eat at the other end when they arrived to eat breakfast.

* * *

At around 12:30 in the afternoon, Sam addressed the final invitation. Relief washed over her as she affixed the last stamp.

To celebrate, she decided to make one of her favorite lunch items, a chicken salad sandwich.

Since she hadn't seen Nya around the kitchen since breakfast, she went to the control room to ask if Nya would be also interested in a sandwich for lunch.

"That sounds great, Sam. Thanks!" Nya responded when Sam offered. "Then we can talk about dinner - tonight was supposed to be Zane's turn to cook."

"Oh, you're right," Sam said. "I can check to see what we have in the freezer."

Sam returned to the dining room, only to find Jay and Lloyd standing at the table, looking over the bundle of wedding invitations, all addressed and stamped. They looked up as she came in.

"Wow! All these people are invited to the wedding?" Jay exclaimed, motioning toward the pile. "That's a lot of people who are gonna see Kai trip or do something stupid like that," he teased.

His comment earned a chuckle from Lloyd and a playful punch on the arm from Sam.

"What are you guys doing in here now, anyway?" she asked.

"Uncle ended training early, again," Lloyd explained.

"Well, would you guys like some lunch? I'm about to make chicken salad sandwiches."

Upon receiving two affirmative responses, Sam took a large sized bowl out of the cabinet and began to prepare lunch for everyone.

* * *

Refreshed after her lunch, Sam left the Bounty and walked the hundred yards to the cottage so that she could begin painting the bedroom. She unlocked the front door and walked inside. To her dismay, the temperature in the little house felt like it was 100 degrees.

 _I guess I'm going to have to come here every day and open up the cottage just to get the air circulating_ , she thought to herself, mentally putting "air conditioner" at the top of her list of home improvements.

She walked through the living room of the cottage, where the gifts from the bridal shower in her hometown were still stacked from two weeks ago, and made her way toward the back of the house into the bedroom. Immediately she opened up the bedroom windows.

Next, she went back to the stack of gifts and found the two electric fans given by Mrs. Jones, who had lived down the street from Sam's family for years. Since the thank-you notes for all the shower gifts had been written and sent by Sam last week, Sam felt free to take the fans out if their boxes and start using them, and so she set them up to start circulating the air.

Sam could already tell that the painting project was going to go a bit slower than she hoped. So she was grateful that two potential items on her to-do list were going to be taken care of by others. Lloyd had offered to take the invitations to the post office as he went into the city to do an errand for Sensei. And Nya had offered to take over Zane's dinner duties so that Sam could concentrate on painting.

Sam got out the roll of painter's tape in preparation for the first coat of tan paint. She hoped Kai would be surprised and pleased when he came home and found that this chore had already been done.


	4. An Awful Summer Night

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Thanks to lovesgod12, StoryMaker7, and AveXCninja11 for your comments on the last chapter!**

 **In the chapter below, a summer night doesn't end well...**

* * *

 **Chapter 4 - An Awful Summer Night**

"Maybe when I go to the grocery store tomorrow, I should stock up on paper plates and cups," Sam pondered as she placed her dirty dish in the dishwasher after dinner.

"Is that because of the water rationing?" Nya asked as she placed her own dish in the machine.

"Water rationing?" Lloyd questioned. He hadn't had a chance to listen to news reports.

"Yeah, they were saying on the radio that each household in the Ninjago City area might only be allowed a certain number of gallons per week, and if you use more than that, they'll charge you an arm and a leg," Sam explained.

"Oh, wow, does that mean I have to take shorter showers?" Jay whined. "It sure better start raining soon!"

After the kitchen had been cleaned up, Sam returned with Jay and Nya to the cottage. The blue ninja and the samurai had volunteered to assist in applying the second coat of paint to the bedroom walls.

Before they began, Sam briefly explained where the future furniture would be placed in the room.

"The bed will go against this wall, with two end tables on each side. We'll put the dresser in the big space along the wall where the closet is."

"And I was thinking this corner would be a good place for a crib, for a future little leaf on the Smith family tree someday," Sam concluded, smiling as she spoke.

Sam couldn't be sure, but she thought Jay, who had his arm around Nya's shoulder, and Nya, who had her arm around Jay's waist, may have held each other a little tighter, as if they envisioned a time when a crib would be needed for a future baby Walker.

The evening was fun as well as productive. Jay had the girls constantly laughing as they discussed many topics, including wedding related matters, women's fashions, and favorite bands and singers.

The blue ninja especially cracked up his companions with all the ideas he came up with for Kai's bachelor party.

At about the time Jay and the girls were finishing up the painting project, Nya's communication bracelet beeped. Knowing it was Sensei calling her from the Bounty's control room, she pushed the buttons to activate communication on her end.

"Yes, Sensei?" she spoke into the bracelet's embedded microphone.

"Nya, would you and Sam and Jay please make your best effort to finish your business in the cottage and return to the Bounty as soon as possible? We have just received some news that you three need to know about."

"Uh, of course, Sensei," Nya replied. "We're working on wrapping it up now, but we'll speed things up and be there within 15 minutes, I would say."

"Thank you," Sensei responded. He ended the communication link on his end, and Nya pushed the necessary buttons on her bracelet to terminate the link on her end.

"What do you suppose that's all about?" she wondered aloud.

"I don't know, but I didn't get a warm and fuzzy feeling from him," Jay commented. "I would think he would just go ahead and tell us if the news were good."

Sam silently agreed with Jay. A seed of apprehension began to grow within her. Nevertheless, she tried to keep her tone light.

"Hey, Jay, if you wouldn't mind ripping off the painter's tape from the walls and picking up the tarps, then once I finish rinsing the paint rollers and Nya closes up the paint buckets, we should be done."

"Aye, aye, captain," Jay responded, also trying to keep his tone light. He sensed her apprehension.

After just a few more minutes of cleanup, Jay and the girls left the cottage. Sam left the windows open so that the fumes of the paint would dissipate more quickly.

When Sam, Nya, and Jay arrived back at the Bounty, they were greeted at the door by Lloyd. He looked somber.

"Let's go into the living room," he said.

 _This can't be good_ , Sam thought.

In the living room, Sensei Wu was waiting, sitting on a kitchen chair placed in front of the sofa. He had a solemn demeanor as well.

"Please sit down," Sensei instructed the new arrivals.

Sam and Nya sat down on the middle section of the sofa. Jay then sat on Nya's right side. He took her hand in his.

Lloyd sat on Sam's left side and took her hand in his, too.

 _This REALLY can't be good_ , Sam thought.

Sensei cleared his throat and began. "Zane called earlier with some news. About Kai."

Nya gave a little gasp. Sam's heart began to pound.

Sensei continued. "Kai was setting a backburn fire on Oracle Mountain just before sunset this evening. The firefighters on the scene said it appeared he became trapped in a sudden wall of flames...and he is now missing."

Jay gave a low whistle.

Sam felt a sensation of paralysis begin in her chest and flow down to her feet.

Tears welled up in Nya's eyes. "But, Sensei, Kai is the master of fire..."

"Yes, Nya, indeed he is," Sensei affirmed her statement. "However, he is not fireproof beyond a certain temperature nor beyond a certain length of time. Nevertheless, we here in this room cannot jump to conclusions about his fate, so that is why we will fly the Bounty out to northwestern Ninjago right away to search his last known whereabouts. The resources of the firefighters are spread very thin right now, so in order that they can focus on the wildfires, the officials gave us permission to take over the search for him" - Sensei paused - "or his body. Sam, are you all right?"

Sam's face was pale.

She felt Lloyd squeezing her hand. "Breathe, Sam," he urged.

Sam took a deep breath. It helped, but not much.

"Sam, do you need to do anything at the cottage? We plan to leave in about 20 minutes," Sensei asked.

To Sam, it sounded like someone else was talking when she said, "I just need to close up the cottage windows. And I need to call Mom and Dad."

Lloyd stood up. "I can close the windows. Why don't you go right in the control room to make your call?"

Sam numbly fumbled for the cottage key in her pocket and handed it to him. "Thanks."

He helped her stand up from her sitting position on the sofa and followed her out of the living room, just pausing long enough to look back at Jay and Sensei and say, "I'll be back to help pull up anchor."

Upon reaching the control room, Lloyd stopped her for a moment. "Hey, Sam?"

Sam turned to look at him.

"Have faith," he said.

She appreciated that he was trying to cheer her up. But the smile he gave her didn't quite reach up to his eyes. She could tell he was worried.

"Thanks," she said, returning a weak, small smile. She entered the control room and he went on to take care of the cottage.

She picked up the phone and began to dial her parents. She was glad that she had an excuse to make the call a short one. The others needed to get into this room in order to get the journey started.

The answering machine kicked in at her parents' home. She hated to leave upsetting news for them on the machine but she had no choice. They were bound to learn of media reports about the missing ninja by the morning hours anyway, so she wanted them to personally hear from her beforehand. In her message, she promised to call them back within 24 hours with an update on the search for their future son-in-law.

When she finished her call, she went straight to the bedroom she shared with Nya. She could hear Nya talking with Jay in the living room. That was fine with Sam - she wanted to be alone.

As Sam got ready for bed, she heard the ship's engine roar and felt its vibration as it came to life. Tonight's flight on the Bounty would be the first ever for her. The ship seemed like it was going to rattle itself apart, but if no one else was worried about it, she wouldn't worry, either.

The last thing Sam did before climbing into bed was to take off her necklace with the intent of placing it in her jewelry box. It was a simple gold chain which sported a heart charm. Kai had given her the chain and heart last Christmas. As she opened the lid of the jewelry box, she paused to look at their wedding rings. She had stored them in the box to await the wedding ceremony, when she and Kai would formally present them to each other.

She recalled that a friend once told her about someone being married in a hospital room while suffering from a grave illness.

Sam took the rings from the jewelry box and hooked them onto the gold chain. Then, instead of putting the necklace in the jewelry box, she placed it on her bedside table. She climbed into bed and turned off the bedside lamp. Her mind raced from thought to thought.

If Kai was found alive but seriously injured, she wondered if he would want to have a simple ceremony right in the hospital room.

In the event that Kai was found...not alive...she would leave the ring she planned to give to him on the mountain where he drew his last breath.

The tears flowed into her pillow as she cried herself to sleep.


	5. A Midsummer Night's Dream

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Howdy to all! Hope everyone had a nice Easter weekend. I've been away from this website for a few days and, judging from all the notifications in my email box, I have a lot of good reading to catch up on!**

 **By the way, I'm going to take a short break from updating my other current story, _The Fire Within a Ninjago Soldier_. As you know, Zane was just severely injured by an enemy soldier. Well, another of our favorite cowboys is not going to fare too well, either, but I have to determine exactly how that is going to happen.**

 **Did everyone in the USA see where Season 6 will FINALLY air on Cartoon Network in May? YAY!**

 **Shoutouts go to all the followers and favers of this story, plus the commenters on the last chapter: lovesgod12, AveXCninja11, StoryMaker7, and FirstFandomFangirl!**

 **Could there be new hope that Kai will be found? Read on...**

* * *

 **Chapter 5 - A Midsummer Night's Dream**

 _I'm sitting in a chair in prison-like surroundings. I can't move my arms or legs._

 _Kai is standing in front of me. But he isn't looking at me. He's focusing on something off to the side of us._

 _I turn my gaze to where he is focused. Wait! What is that in the pitch black darkness over there? Two orange eyes, and above them, where the forehead would be, there's a glowing orange symbol in the shape of three flames._

 _The creepy image gives Kai a command: "Kill her."_

 _Kai looks at me. The whites of his eyes turned orange! He's like a zombie. He grabs my neck._

 _Oh, Kai, please don't hurt me! Fight for control of your mind!_

 _I love you, Kai!_

Sam woke up in the dark from her dream, sweating with fear.

She tried to calm herself by saying it was just a nightmare, but the events of last night rushed back into her consciousness, and she realized her reality was also a nightmare.

The soft glow of her alarm clock on her bedside table told her the time was close to four o'clock in the morning.

An additional glow on the bedside table caught her attention. It was a small circle of reddish light. She looked closer.

The glow came from the crystal in the ring that Kai intended to give to her at their wedding ceremony.

 _OK, this is freaky,_ she thought to herself.

Sam recalled that at the time she and Kai first talked about wedding rings, he had mentioned that Sensei wanted to speak to him about the ring he would give his bride. Later, once the ring had been fashioned, Kai said there was a family history behind the precious crystal, and the story would be revealed to her at the ceremony.

 _Perhaps the story needs to be revealed to me now_ , she decided.

She got out of the bed quietly so as not to wake Nya, even though Nya was not a light sleeper. After throwing on some sweats, Sam picked up the necklace with both wedding rings and the heart charm and left the room to find Sensei Wu.

As Sam walked down the hallway, she could feel the vibration of the engine of the Bounty. It was not yet a sensation she was used to.

It occurred to her as she walked that Sensei might be in his quarters, sleeping. But she would wake him if she had to. She wanted answers.

As it turned out, she found Sensei sitting just inside the control room at one of the desks, studying some navigational maps. At the far end of the room, Lloyd stood with his back to them, wearing a headset and steering the ship - it was his turn to pilot. She knew, from conversations she had heard going on in the hallway as she had prepared for bed, that Jay would be flying the ship for the first few hours of their journey, and Lloyd would be taking the helm for the following few hours while Jay napped.

Though Nya was also capable of captaining the vessel, the ninja brothers were not going to ask for her piloting help on this trip - they knew she needed to rest after hearing last night's devastating news about her brother.

"Good morning, Sensei," Sam greeted the wise teacher, her eyes still getting accustomed to the brighter light outside her bedroom. At the sound of her voice, Lloyd turned around and gave her a quick wave. She waved back before he turned back to focus on his captaining duties.

"Oh, good morning, Sam. Please sit down," Sensei said, moving a few papers away to clear a space for her at the desk. "How did you rest these past few hours?"

Sam sat down in the other chair at the desk. "Not well, Sensei," she replied. "I had a nightmare, and then when I woke up I noticed something weird about the wedding ring that Kai..." - Sam swallowed hard - "...IS going to give me at the ceremony. The crystal is glowing. Let me show you."

Sam hopped up from the chair just long enough to turn off the hallway light and then sat back down, opening her hand to display the necklace on which was attached the wedding ring with the crystal. Sensei took the necklace from her and gently fingered the ring, observing the reddish glow.

"I see," he commented as he handed the jewelry back to her. "And what was your nightmare about?" he asked.

As Sam stood to turn on the hallway light again, she began to tell the teacher about her dream.

"Your words bring me hope and trepidation, Sam," Sensei Wu slowly responded when she was finished. "The hope comes from the crystal in your wedding ring. The crystal is a chip from an ancient larger crystal belonging to the family of the masters of fire. Kai and Nya's father gave me the crystal to look after, just before he passed, because at the time Kai and Nya were too young to assume the responsibility. A property of this crystal is that it glows when a fire master is in distress. So if Kai is in distress, that means he is still alive..."

Sam's heart leaped.

"...and thus I have hope we can get him back," Sensei concluded.

Sam's happiness was short-lived, however, as she remembered what else the wise teacher had said. "Why do you feel trepidation, Sensei?" she asked.

"The vision in your dream of a glowing orange symbol of three flames over two glowing orange eyes is the description of an evil witch of fire named Fiora. In the ancient times, Fiora once worked in harmony with nature to keep the balance of life steady. But her power went to her head and she began to wreak destruction upon the land, thus causing the ancient Council of Nature to banish her to the center of the earth for eternity. Now I fear she has made her way back to the earth's surface, and she may be using Kai to attain whatever dastardly goal she has in mind."

Sam's eyes widened.

Just then, Jay entered the control room, rubbing his sleepy eyes. He had awakened to prepare for his next turn at steering the ship.

"Hi, Sensei. Hi, Sam - you're up early."

"Jay," Sensei directly addressed his pupil, "there has been an interesting development that I would like to tell you and Lloyd and Nya about right now. Would you please go wake her?"

"Sure, Sensei," the blue ninja drowsily replied, heading toward the ladies' bedroom.

"I'll put on some coffee while Jay wakes up Nya," Sam volunteered. She left the jewelry on Sensei's desk as she rose from her seat and walked to the kitchen.

As the bride-to-be inserted a new filter in the coffeemaker and added the coffee grounds, she began to get angry.

Her wedding was scheduled to be taking place in just a few short weeks. Right now she should be focusing on plans for the ceremony and for her married life afterward with her man. Happy stuff. Not embarking on a search for her missing groom, whose disappearance appeared to be at the hands of an awful fire witch.

As she added water to the coffeemaker, she thought about how water douses flames of a fire.

 _I'm going to get you back for your evilness, Fiora!_ Sam vowed.


	6. A Summer Morning

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Hope everyone's April is going well so far! A tip of the hat goes to all the readers, favers, and followers of this story, and the commenters on the previous chapter: lovesgod12, AveXCninja11, StoryMaker7, TitaniumMasterOfAquaLightning, Stormwing15, and FirstFandomFangirl!**

 **The original account of Sam's first ride on Kai's dragon, which is referenced below, can be found in Chapter 39 of** _ **The Fire Within**_ **.**

 **In the chapter below, the Bounty arrives in the region of the forest fires…**

* * *

 **Chapter 6 - A Summer Morning**

At about 7:30 in the morning, the Bounty arrived at its destination in the mountainous forest region of northwestern Ninjago. The daylight revealed that a haze of smoke hung over much of the area, obscuring mountains in the distance. Many of the mountains that the ship's occupants could see were scarred with blackness.

Jay piloted the Bounty toward a mountain that still remained green. From the control room window, Sam, who by this time had dressed for the day in a T-shirt, hiking shorts and hiking boots, could see a cluster of buildings that looked somewhat like an army camp. This was the wildfire combat staging area.

As the ship grew closer, Zane and Cole could be seen standing and waiting for them. They wore fire hats and vests over their ninja uniforms. Several media trucks were parked to one side. Cameras of all sorts were pointed at the landing ship. A fire official stood in front of the media group, addressing them. He appeared to be telling the reporters not to bother the new arrivals, for none of them were approaching the landing Bounty.

Lloyd was also watching through the control room window. "I'm gonna go tell Cole and Zane to climb aboard as soon as the Bounty lands," he announced, "so we can talk to them privately about your dream and your ring before we talk to the emergency personnel." He left the room while Jay continued to expertly guide the ship closer to the ground.

"Hang on!" the ninja of lightning warned as the distance between the vessel and the ground disappeared. Sam braced for a rocky impact, but only a thud was felt. Her first landing experience as a passenger on the Bounty was a smooth one.

"Heh, heh, another good one," Jay smiled, trying to maintain a positive attitude despite the circumstances. Nya, though her eyes were still bleary from having cried herself to sleep just like Sam had done, smiled back at the blue ninja and patted him on the back before helping him flip necessary switches on the control panel as part of the shutdown process.

The sound of approaching footsteps told the control room occupants that Cole and Zane had boarded the ship. As the tired-looking ninja brothers entered the room, followed by Lloyd, subdued hugs and handshakes of greeting were exchanged, as the disappearance of the red ninja cast a pall over the group.

"We worked the overnight shift so that we could spend a few hours with you before getting some sleep," Zane informed them as they took seats around the conference table in the control room.

 _They've been working for 24 straight hours!_ Sam realized.

"So Lloyd said there was something new to know?" Cole inquired.

"Yes," Sensei replied. "We have a reason to believe Kai is alive."

As Sensei began relaying to them the story of the evil fire witch, Nya went to the kitchen and returned with a full carafe of coffee and two empty coffee mugs for the fatigued ninja brothers. After filling the mugs, she walked around the conference table and refreshed the others' beverages as well.

When Sensei began to narrate the story of the ring crystal, Sam took off her necklace, hooking the clasps together before she showed it to Cole and Zane. She leaned over to block what light she could so that the earth ninja and the ice ninja could better see how the crystal in the ring glowed.

But when the fire ninja's fiancee straightened up again, she somehow accidentally tipped over her coffee mug, spilling the hot brown liquid on the floor.

"Oh, that was so dumb!" Sam exclaimed, thankful at least that that coffee had not pooled on the table nor had scalded Cole, who was the closest person seated to the accident. "I'll be right back with some paper towels!" she declared, setting the jewelry down on the table and running into the kitchen. Tearing several paper towels off the roll, she rushed back into the control room.

As Sam mopped up the mess, Sensei Wu gave advice to the group. "When we visit the site where Kai was last seen, let us keep everyone thinking that we are the next of kin who are searching only for our loved one. But let us not reveal to anyone what we are also doing - searching for clues as to what Fiora might have done with him or where she might have taken him."

Outside the Bounty, they heard a man shout "Hello!"

"That's Chief Vincent, commander of the wildfire combat battalion," Zane explained. "He is likely wondering why no one has yet exited the ship."

"Then we'd best greet him right away so as not to use up his valuable time," Sensei declared.

As the group exited the control room, Zane took the knapsack of first aid supplies that Sensei had prepared. Jay took the knapsack which held drinking water and some food. Cole grabbed the two wooden poles, connected by canvas fabric, which rested by the door. The poles and fabric formed the stretcher that would be needed to haul an incapacitated Kai off the mountain.

As she prepared to depart, Sam spotted her necklace on the table.

 _I guess I forgot to put it back on when I got distracted by the coffee spill,_ she realized. But because of the group's need to quickly depart the vessel, she did not want to take the time to re-clasp the necklace around her neck, so she grabbed it and stuffed it in a zippered pocket of her hiking shorts, then closed the zipper.

 _It should be safe there till I get a chance to put it around my neck later,_ she decided as she left the room.

Standing outside the Bounty, on the side of the ship hidden from the view of the media personnel for privacy, Cole and Zane introduced the new arrivals to Chief Vincent. The chief lauded the work of the earth ninja and the ice ninja and cited their willingness to take on an additional shift in order to be off duty upon their friends' arrival. Then the chief expressed hope that they would find Kai alive and safe during their search.

The group received the coordinates of Kai's last known position, along with fire hats and jackets to protect their hair and clothes from ashes blowing in the air. The chief shook everyone's hand once more before returning to his duties.

The group planned to leave the Bounty where it had landed and fly over to the nearby Oracle Mountain on the elemental dragons.

Nya effortlessly hopped up on Jay's blue elemental dragon, seating herself behind the blue ninja and holding onto his waist.

Out of habit, Sam automatically looked around for a red dragon. Kai had taken her on many dragon rides, ever since that first time last summer when they rode back to the Bounty from the grocery store with their purchases. On that day, even though her feet had hurt after wearing business heels all day at her internship at Borg Industries, she had felt reluctant about going home aboard the creature. But when she had peered into Kai's soft brown eyes, she had felt an overwhelming sense of trust surround her, and she knew she would be safe. Each ride she had taken with him since then had been just as magical as the first one, whether the journey took them to ordinary places, such as the grocery store, or special places, such as Sunset Point, where he had taken her to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the day they had met.

The absence of a red dragon hit Sam like a punch in the stomach, as she considered the possibility that she and Kai had already shared their last ride together.

Lloyd noticed the pinched look on her face and understood why it was there. "Come with me, Sam," he gently urged her, holding out his hand.

Sam swallowed the lump in her throat and gratefully accepted his assistance in climbing onto the green dragon. She settled herself behind the green ninja, and then they took off, heading along with the others to Oracle Mountain.


	7. The Search Is On

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Thanks to all the readers of this tale and to the favers (including 2 new friends in April!) and to the followers (including 3 new friends in April)! I appreciate your support very much!**

 **And shoutouts to FirstFandomFangirl, Kai Lover911, StoryMaker7, AveXCninja11, lovesgod12, and taylorjensen517 for commenting on the previous chapter. You warm my heart and give me incentive!**

 **My poll on where Kai and Sam should go on their honeymoon is still active and will be for a while. Check it out if you haven't yet had a chance!**

 **The search for Kai begins…**

* * *

 **Chapter 7 - The Search Is On**

"What's the name of the place that Chief Vincent said Kai was working at? Three Rocks? Three Stones?" Jay asked as the four ninja brothers, their teacher, and the two young women hiked up a trail of Oracle Mountain. They all were clad in the fire hats and jackets lent to them by the commander. The extra gear made them sweat even more in the oppressive heat of the day, but they knew it was necessary.

Cole rolled his eyes at his teammate. "Three Boulders is the name of the place," he answered. He adjusted the stretcher poles he was carrying on his back in a sling.

"I would have gotten it eventually," Jay declared.

A short while ago, the group had dismounted the dragons a little farther down the mountainside, in an open area where grass had grown instead of trees. The trail that they were now traversing up the mountainside led them through what once was a lush woodsy area but had been converted by the wildfires into an eerie forest of charred black poles.

The path they were following took a sharp turn to the left. As they rounded the bend, it appeared that the path ended at an eight-feet-high wall of rocks just up ahead.

"Oh, man, did we hit a dead end?" Lloyd lamented as they approached the wall.

Sensei Wu checked the map provided by Chief Vincent. "This map indicates that the path continues beyond this point."

Cole examined the area to one side of the wall. "There's a really narrow dirt path here. I'll check it out and be back in a minute," he announced. He followed it for a short distance, disappearing into a thicket of charred trees. He reappeared shortly.

"The dirt path can lead us up to a continuation of our trail. It's a steep climb, but it's short and it'll get us there," he informed his friends.

Cole led the way, followed by Nya, Jay, Sam, Lloyd, Sensei, and Zane. Sam figured that Lloyd had strategically positioned himself in the single-file line. Though his elderly uncle was spry enough to manage the steep climb, Lloyd would be close enough to help Zane assist their teacher, just in case.

And Sam figured that Lloyd wanted to walk behind her because he was feeling protective toward her. Last summer, when she and Kai hit that big bump in their relationship, she and Lloyd had started to make a go of a relationship themselves. But it became evident that Sam was actually meant to be with Kai, so Lloyd nobly stepped aside and facilitated the patching up of feelings between the fire ninja and the blue-eyed beauty, even though he himself still harbored feelings for her. He then resumed the role of a friend and managed to thwart any awkwardness among the three of them that might have otherwise occurred. Lloyd even occasionally sought Sam's advice on how he could get favorable attention from a girl who he had met at Hayward's Department Store, a fancy retailer in downtown Ninjago City.

Cole wasn't kidding. The path was steep. Sam occasionally had to hang on trees along the side in order to advance upward to the main trail.

Eventually they all reached the trail and surveyed the scorched area they had come upon. Looking to the right, in the direction they had come from, they could see where the trail sharply dropped off back at the rock wall. Moving to their left and following the trail forward, it only took them a few short minutes to reach the place called Three Boulders. These boulders, each about four feet high, were located in an open area away from trees, and they were arranged adjacent to each other in triangle fashion.

"I'm afraid I do not know exactly what a calling card from Fiora would look like," Sensei admitted, "but I have a feeling it would be quite evident. I suggest we split up and look around."

"Sounds like a good idea," Cole agreed. "Sensei, would you like to cover the area between the boulders and the rock wall back there? Jay and Nya, why don't you keep heading south on the trail and see if you can find anything. Zane and I will search the mountainside where it angles up steeply here to the west. Lloyd and Sam, maybe you could cover that scorched grassy area which overlooks the valley."

The others agreed with his suggestions and spread out.

Sam and Lloyd set out through the scorched grassy area, keeping their eyes glued to the ground. They took turns to occasionally call out Kai's name, and then they kept still, listening for a possible response from the fire ninja. They could hear the others in their group doing the same, dozens of yards away.

"It's so quiet around here," Lloyd commented.

Sam nodded. "I guess that since the homes of the birds and the animals were destroyed, they've gone in search of new places to live."

"I've heard it can take 25 whole years for a forest to regenerate itself after a wildfire. That's a pretty significant amount of time - long enough for another generation of humans to grow up," the green ninja mused.

Lloyd removed his knapsack from his back, and from it he extracted his water bottle. As he took a large gulp, he noticed out of the corner of his eye that Jay and Nya, instead of heading up the trail, were retracing their steps back down the trail, toward Sensei Wu.

"Sensei! We forgot to get the map from you!" Jay called out, waving his arms to get the attention of their teacher.

At the sound of Jay's voice, Sam turned and also saw the couple.

Lloyd finished swallowing his gulp of the refreshing liquid. "You know, I think I'm gonna ask Jay for another water bottle, since it seems extra hot today," Lloyd decided. "Want another one, too, Sam?"

Sam nodded. "Yeah, that's a good idea. Thanks."

"OK, I'll be right back," Lloyd stated as he stuffed his partially empty water bottle back in the knapsack. "Jay, hold up!" he called out as he jogged over to the blue ninja, who was in charge of carrying extra food and water supplies. Jay stopped to wait for Lloyd to reach him while Nya continued to head toward Sensei to retrieve the map.

While waiting for Lloyd to return, Sam took a break from looking at the ground and instead looked out at the valley below. Part of the scenery was obscured by an outcropping of rock fifty yards away, but Sam could still see that the valley was not at its prettiest now, displaying black scorch marks and a gray haze. However, she could envision the majestic view that human eyes could have beheld before the wildfires started.

Lloyd had said that another generation of humans could grow up in the time it could take the valley to regenerate itself. _Will Kai and I have the opportunity to parent a new generation of fire masters?_ she wondered.

Sam unzipped the pocket containing her necklace and placed her hand inside, fingering the wedding rings. She desperately wished to have her man stand by her side once again.


	8. A Dark Summer Day

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **I hope everyone reading this is doing well. In my household this week, everyone has been experiencing illness. If I had a penny for every cough that was coughed this week, I'd almost be a millionaire! XD**

 **Unfortunately, I've only done a little bit of reading of fanfiction this week, but I plan to catch up on the story updates soon!**

 **I appreciate the 7 comments on the 7th chapter of this story! Thanks to Kai Lover911, Guest, FirstFandomFangirl, lovesgod12, StoryMaker7, INFJwriter, and AveXCninja11!**

 **In this chapter, the search for Kai does not go well...**

* * *

 **Chapter 8 - A Dark Summer Day**

To distract herself from shedding the tears of worry about Kai that threatened to fill her eyes, the fire ninja's fiancee looked away from the valley to see what the others in her group were up to.

Cole and Zane were pointing up the mountainside, no doubt deciding how to proceed further in their search area. Back in the area where the group had come from, Sensei was handing Nya the map. Lloyd and Jay, standing over toward the south, appeared to be finishing their conversation. Sam saw Lloyd turn and walk back toward her with the water bottles Jay had just given him.

A crackling sound coming from the valley caught Sam's attention. It reminded her of fireworks. She turned and again looked down in that direction, trying to determine the source of the noise. It seemed like it was getting louder.

She soon found out what was causing it. A wall of flames appeared in view from behind the outcropping of rock. It steadily blazed toward the group.

"Fire!" Sam screamed, running in the opposite direction. "Fire!"

Her shouts quickly caught the attention of the others in the group.

"Fire?!" Cole exclaimed in confusion to Zane. "This area's already burned!"

"It does seem like an anomaly!" Zane agreed. Though he was several dozen yards away, he shot ice at the flames to douse them, but to no avail - the fire continued to advance. "The fire is indeed real, but my powers have no effect!"

Cole then formed a high hill of dirt to contain the fire, but to his horror, the flames were not deterred. Even though they had no visible fuel to consume, they apparently had climbed up the hill on the far side and were now making their way down the hill on the near side, continuing to steadily advance toward the group.

Cole quickly assessed the situation. There was not enough room or time to summon the dragons and fly away to safety.

"Everyone! Run back toward the rock wall dropoff and jump down!" he ordered. "The fire can't burn if there's only rocks there!" At least he hoped that was true - this fire had already crossed a hill of plain dirt. But there was no other option.

Lloyd dropped the water bottles and ran toward Sam, who was discovering - to her dismay - that her heavy thick-soled hiking boots were not conducive to fast running. The green ninja, upon catching up to the blonde, grabbed her hand and pulled her along as they raced back to the spot they had been at just a short while ago.

Sensei Wu and Nya reached the rock wall dropoff first, since they were the closest. Sensei took her hand and performed a quick Spinjitzu to safely negotiate the eight-foot descent.

"The flames are coming in too fast!" Jay yelled. He had been the farthest one from the wall when the danger began.

As Lloyd ran, pulling the stumbling Sam behind him, he glanced behind him and past her shoulder. Jay was right - the flames were moving in quickly. Too quickly to save both of them.

"Sam!" the green ninja shouted while they kept running. "I'm gonna fling you toward the dropoff! Do your Spinjitzu to land safely!"

"You know I...haven't mastered...Spinjitzu, Lloyd!" Sam protested in between gasps for breath due to the sprinting. He had given her lessons last summer because she wanted to impress Kai, and she had developed the skill to form a very rudimentary tornado, but once school had started last fall, she became too busy to keep up the training and had only recently resumed it when she moved back onto the Bounty three weeks ago.

"Just do it, Sam! You'll be fine! NinjaGO!" Lloyd yelled, and in one swift motion, he thrust Sam forward toward the rock wall dropoff, just seconds ahead of the flames.

While in midair Sam awkwardly formed a Spinjitzu tornado. It was weak, but it kept her from severe injury as she sailed through the air and landed in a heap on the ground down in the rock wall dropoff, eight feet below the level she and Lloyd were just at. The fire jacket she was wearing also provided some cushion for her fall.

Her trajectory took her a few yards out from the wall. Sensei and Nya, huddling low against the wall of rock, saw her land. Immediately they ran to her and dragged her closer to the wall as the crackling sound became louder and louder. The three crouched against the rocks, waiting for the others to join them. They kept waiting, covering their ears at the noise, which now had reached the decibel level of a jet engine. When it seemed the noise couldn't get any louder, Sam looked up above her, at the top edge of the rock wall. The flames appeared to have reached the very edge of the precipice, burning just eight feet above them.

For a brief second, it seemed that the flames were looking down at her.

Then the flames disappeared from view, as if they had retreated, and the loud noise ceased. But the ninja still had not appeared.

The wise teacher and two young women slowly removed their hands from their ears and stood up. All was eerily quiet.

"Sensei! I'm worried about Jay and the others!" Nya said softly.

Sensei put his hand on her shoulder and looked at his two companions with worry in his own eyes. "I will climb back up to reach the trail again. I do not know what I will find up there. You ladies may choose whether you wish to go up there as well, or remain here. I can understand if you wish to stay here."

Sam knew that Sensei was trying to brace the young women for the likelihood that the lifeless bodies of the four ninja were now lying on the ground in the aftermath of the blaze.

"I'll go up with you, Sensei," Sam said quietly. The wise teacher was not only an instructor to the ninja, but he was also their mentor, confidant, and friend. Sam wished to be by the side of the elderly man, so he wouldn't be alone in facing the worst case scenario involving his beloved pupils.

"Me, too," Nya added, also wishing to provide support to the man who served as an honorary uncle to her and her brother.

"Very well," Sensei said. "Let us proceed."

The three of them made their way up the same steep dirt path that they had climbed just a short while ago with the ninja.

When they reached the trail at the end of the dirt path, their eyes reluctantly scanned the ground of the surrounding area for lumps of yellow, the color of their fire jackets. They were astonished that none were to be found.

"Lloyd! Zane!" they called out into the quietness of the morning. "Jay! Cole!"

No reply could be heard.

A thought struck Sam as she remembered the flames which seemed to look down at her from the precipice. "Sensei, you don't suppose that…"

Sensei knew what she was thinking. "...Yes, I believe Fiora took the rest of the ninja, too. That fast moving fire obviously was Fiora's method of capturing them. The same way she captured Kai."

Fiora's act of evil angered Sam. _She can't get away with this!_ the bride-to-be fumed.

An idea entered her head.

She grabbed the necklace out of her pocket and threw it on the ground.

"Sensei! Use this to keep track of us!" she yelled as she abruptly began to run toward Three Boulders.

"Sam, why are you running?" a startled Nya called out.

"Fiora! Fiora!" Sam screamed into the air, focused on running along the trail. She was mad. She was not going to let this fire witch simply take her man and her friends. She was determined to confront the evil being.

Sensei realized what the bride-to-be was trying to do - deliberately get captured by Fiora. He began to hurry after the fire ninja's fiancee. "Sam, please come back!" he implored her.

"Fiora! Can you hear me?" Sam continued to scream, oblivious to the pleading of the wise teacher.

"Sam, what are you doing?" Nya shouted as she picked up the jewelry from the ground and hustled to follow the other two.

"Fiora! We know you took the ninja!" Sam yelled.

"Sam, please don't do this!" Sensei called out from several yards behind her.

Sam reached the three large rocks and quickly climbed on top of them, wanting to position herself as high up as possible. She held her arms in the air.

The next thing she was about to say was a falsehood, but she hoped Fiora would accept it as truth, or at least believe that it might be true...

"Fiora! Take me, too! I'm pregnant with the next generation of fire masters!"

The boulders suddenly shifted, forming a deep hole in the center of them. Sam was immediately sucked into the hole. Just as suddenly, the boulders shifted back to their original position, sealing the hole before Sensei could reach her.

Sensei approached the big stones and sorrowfully stood silent, staring at the spot where the blonde college student had been present just moments ago.

Nya came up behind the wise teacher, breathing hard. "Sensei, here's Sam's necklace."

Sensei took it from her and held it in his hand, fingering the wedding ring intended for the bride-to-be. In a quiet voice, he made a statement to Nya.

"This ring is the only link we now have with the ninja and with Sam."


	9. The End of a Search, The Beginning of a?

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **As always, I am thrilled that this story has readers, followers, favers, and commenters, the latest being AveXCninja11, StoryMaker7, TitaniumMasterOfAquaLightning, INFJwriter, lovesgod12, and Kai Lover911! Thank you!**

 **In this chapter, something good finally happens...**

* * *

 **Chapter 9 - The End of a Search, The Beginning of a ?**

Sam was plunged into total darkness.

She couldn't see anything, but she could tell she was traveling, feet first, down the steeply sloped wall of a tunnel at a fast rate of speed, which increased with each passing second. She clenched her teeth and desperately wished for the motion to stop.

After a minute, she felt the sensation of slowing down. Her body felt like it was positioned less vertically and more horizontally.

Suddenly she hit a bump, similar to a mogul on a ski slope, and the action caused her to tumble around as she traversed the remainder of the tunnel. The back of her fire jacket flipped over her head and entangled her arms.

Sam exited the tunnel and landed on her side with a "Mmph!" The back of her fire jacket remained draped over her head, arms still tangled. A loud clang sounded a second later.

As she struggled to get her bearings, she heard her name being called by familiar voices.

She felt herself being pulled to a sitting position and as someone adjusted her fire jacket, removing it from covering her face, she discovered that Cole and Jay were kneeling on either side of her and Lloyd was crouching down in front of her. Over Lloyd's shoulder, Sam could see Zane a few feet away, focusing his eyes downward and concentrating on something she couldn't see due to Lloyd's position blocking her sightline.

"Guys! You're OK!" she bubbled, ecstatic at seeing them.

Holding her head while she waited for her slight dizziness to disappear, Sam quickly surveyed their surroundings. They were imprisoned in a musty-smelling jail cell with a stone floor and stone walls. The hole in the wall from which she had exited the tunnel and entered the enclosure had now mysteriously been sealed with metal bars.

 _That loud clang probably happened when the hole got sealed_ , she realized.

"Are you OK, Sam?" Cole asked her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she replied, now feeling well enough to remove her hand from her head. "How's everyone here?"

"Most of us, fine. One of us, not so fine," Lloyd responded, moving aside to allow her a view of what Zane was focusing on: a red-clad figure lying on the ground.

"Kai!" Sam gasped at the sight of her fiance. He was being tended to by Zane, who had folded up Kai's fire jacket into a makeshift pillow for his head and was now kneeling on one side of him, treating the patient with various items from the first aid knapsack.

From her sitting position, Sam quickly crawled over to the other side of Kai. He was awake, but weak.

"Oh, Kai, you're alive!" she whispered, joyful tears welling up in her eyes as she gingerly stroked his cheek, which was smattered with streaks of dried blood.

He gave her a feeble smile. "Well, I can't die before the wedding. If I did, all that time spent addressing invitations would be wasted," he joked with a croak in his voice.

"Oh, stop," she lightly protested, smiling through her happy tears and reveling in being by his side once again. "What happened to you?" she asked, stroking his tousled spiky brown hair. She noticed that the sleeves of his ninja uniform were practically torn into strips.

Kai began to explain to her and to the group. "One minute there was a wall of flames coming at me while I was setting backburn fires, and the next minute the ground opened up and I was sucked down a tunnel and landed in here. So that made me kind of grumpy by the time our hostess appeared with a couple of her minions."

"Her minions looked sort of like tumbleweeds," he continued, "so I reached through the bars of the cell and kinda burned them up with some well aimed fireballs."

As the others chuckled, imagining the scene, Kai grinned that adorable lopsided grin. Sam hoped this was a sign that he was starting to feel better.

"She didn't care for my lack of appreciation for her hospitality, so after she put a spell on this whole cave area to neutralize my fire, she conjured up some temporary shackles on my wrists and sent more minions in here to teach me a lesson with their tree branches."

Sam and the others reacted in horror. _That would certainly cause the ring crystal to glow_ , she thought.

Zane paused the application of a medicine and sat back on his heels. "And, Kai, you were beaten to the point where I am finding bits of bark embedded in your skin."

The others cringed at learning the severity of the wounds.

Jay, after having heard that the fire witch had cast a power-neutralizing spell, had begun testing his own powers. He spoke up. "Uh oh, it looks like all our powers might be neutralized in this cave area. I can't shoot electricity."

While the rest of ninja brothers set about testing their powers, eventually proving Jay to be correct, Sam told Kai about the dream she had last night, and what Sensei had said about the glowing stone in the wedding ring and the evil witch of fire.

"That's definitely Fiora who took us down here, then," Kai affirmed. "When I saw her, she appeared in the main area out there in the form of black smoke which reached up to the ceiling."

Sam looked through the wall of bars at the cave area beyond. Torches lined the stone walls of the rather large space, providing illumination. The 30-feet-high domed ceiling area above, however, was dark. On the ground directly below the domed area, the floor was elaborately decorated with shiny tiles arranged in a circle.

"We got taken down here the same way you did, Kai - wall of fire, then tunnel," Lloyd informed him. "Hey, Sam, was there another wall of fire that got you after the one that got us?"

"Uh, no," Sam said slowly. "I ran to Three Boulders and climbed onto the top of them and..." Her face began to turn crimson.

The others noticed her flushed face. "What's the matter?" Lloyd asked.

"I-I screamed to Fiora a lie, that I was pregnant with Kai's baby!" she stammered, embarrassed to reveal - in front of her fiance - the lie she had told.

This time it was Kai's turn to blush deeply as his teammates erupted in loud, hearty laughter.

"Just for the record, guys, we're abstaining till the wedding night, so a baby's not even possible!" he quickly assured them as they continued laughing.

"A baby's not possible...yet," Kai grinned at Sam with a twinkle in his eyes.

She smiled back at him, the color of her cheeks almost matching the red hue of his uniform.

The sudden clang of a loud bell interrupted them. The four newly arrived ninja jumped to their feet and assumed defensive postures at the bars of the jail cell, ready to protect themselves, their incapacitated brother, and his fiancee from whatever danger the bell signified.

As the group watched through the jail bars, a metal door to the side of the large room opened, and in marched a procession of...walking tumbleweed soldiers. Each one was carrying a tree branch, just like a soldier would carry a rifle in a parade. They lined up in rows and stood at attention.

The last tumbleweed in the procession announced, "All hail Mistress Fiora!"

The prisoners watched as one more tumbleweed soldier walked through the door, carrying an ornate golden bowl containing something burning, for the flames flickered above the bowl's rim.

But what was more impressive was the cloud of black smoke floating above the bowl. The bottom of the cloud was attached to the bowl like a tornado funnel cloud snaking to the ground. Once the cloud had entered the room, it expanded in size, its top stretching up to the dark domed area.

The tumbleweed soldier set the ornate golden bowl in the center of the circle of shiny tiles, and that's when two orange eyes appeared in the cloud, along with an orange triple flame symbol where the forehead would be.

Fiora had arrived.


	10. Captor and Captives

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Interesting fact: Prior to the Great Chicago Fire of 1871, which occurred in October of that year, only one inch of rain had fallen in the previous three months, resulting in severe drought conditions.**

 **Shoutouts to the commenters on this fire tale's previous chapter: AveXCninja11, lovesgod12, TitaniumMasterOfAquaLightning, StoryMaker7, taylorjensen517, and Kai Lover911!**

 **In the chapter below, the prisoners meet their "hostess"...**

* * *

 **Chapter 10 - Captor and Captives**

Fiora.

Kai had already seen the fire witch in person, and Sam had seen her in the dream she had, so their eyes did not widen in amazement as the others' eyes did as they all looked up and beheld the appearance of the apparition.

"Welcome to my lair," the villainess said from her elevated position in the main cave area. "I am Fiora, witch of fire and rightful ruler of Ninjago." Though Fiora had a voice in Sam's dream, hearing the apparition's raspy, deep-throated voice for real made the blonde girl freeze.

Cole got right to the point. "What do you want with us, Fiora?" he demanded as he clutched the jail bars.

"Impatient, aren't we? I thought the red ninja was supposed to be the impatient one," the fire witch chuckled. "Well, I'm sure you all have noticed, over the past few weeks, that the weather in Ninjago has been extremely hot and dry."

"We've certainly noticed the forest fires," Jay sniped.

"And water rationing may begin soon," Lloyd added.

"Do we have you to thank for all this?" Zane asked.

"Why, yes," the witch replied. Though she had no mouth, they could tell she would be smiling if one were visible. "I have been busy evaporating clouds so that no rain touches the ground. And when the water supply runs low enough, the people of Ninjago will surrender to me. Then I will rule the land and obtain revenge for being banished to the center of the earth."

"What makes you think you can get away with this?" Kai asked from his recumbent position on the stone floor.

"Because I will have help in the task of persuading the people to be subject to my rule. That help will be you."

The prisoners looked at each other.

"You seem confused, my friends. Yes, you will help me. But first you will need a little persuading yourselves."

Lloyd narrowed his eyes at her. "You mean brainwashing, don't you?"

"Persuading, brainwashing, whatever terminology you wish to use, it's all the same," Fiora said, unfazed by his accusation. "You should know that once you have undergone my persuasion process to join my legion of minions, you'll still keep your powers, so you needn't worry about that. You'll just be using them whenever, and on whomever, I command you to do so."

"Um, what exactly do you mean by a persuasion PROCESS?" Jay asked. "And how long does it take? Does it hurt...much? Will I still like to eat Bunny's Marshmallows afterward? Could I -"

"Silence, blue ninja!" Fiora roared. "Your relevant questions will be answered in due time! Do not insult me with trivial matters!"

Jay rolled his eyes but kept his mouth shut.

Satisfied that her command would be heeded, Fiora continued. "The process involves wearing a metal ring called a cerebrum circlet around your heads while I cast a spell on you. The cerebrum circlets for you ninja are already being worked on as we speak, for while each of you was sliding down here to my lair, I could determine the size of your head and have my minions create a circlet to conform to the shape of your cranium."

"To answer another of the blue ninja's questions, the persuasion process itself takes only about five minutes and will occur right here in this area," she explained. "My original plan was to cast the spell in an hour from now. But now it will be done tomorrow morning, for my minions will need extra time to mine more of the special metal needed to create an additional cerebrum circlet, due to the appearance of a last-minute guest."

Fiora's face floated down to their level to look through the jail bars at the last-minute guest, Sam, who was sitting on the stone floor next to Kai. Having the witch's large orange eyes in close proximity was intimidating, but Sam raised her chin in defiance.

"Tell me, child, what is your name?" the witch rasped.

The college student was annoyed at the condescending form of address which the apparition had just used to refer to her. "I'm not a child," she protested. "My name is Samantha."

Kai inwardly chuckled at the sass that his girl had just shown to their captor, at the same time cringing at the possible retaliation by the witch.

Fiora was not fazed, however, as she asked another question. "And I also would like to know, Samantha, at what point in the future do you anticipate giving birth to the baby?"

Sam had not expected to be asked that question, so she had to think fast to come up with a fake due date. Kai had not expected that question either, of course, so he held his breath as he waited for her answer.

She swallowed. "Um...I'm in my, uh, third month and I'm due on, uh, New Year's Day. Yeah, New Year's Day."

"That would explain why your baby is not showing yet," Fiora commented. "I know that human pregnancies are typically not visible until the fourth or fifth month of the gestation."

Kai exhaled. Fiora accepted what Sam had told her. But a thought crossed his mind.

"Why does Sam need to undergo the persuasion process?" he spoke up, his glances alternating between Sam and Fiora. "She has no powers for you to control."

"Yes, I know SHE has no powers," Fiora replied in an exasperated tone. "But she carries an elemental being within her womb, master of fire, and by applying the persuasion process to her, the baby's mind - as well as her mind - will be under my control."

 _That sounds awful, to want to control an innocent baby's mind, let alone anyone else's mind_ , he thought.

"After the baby's birth, I will no longer be able to control Samantha's mind, but that is no matter, for she will be my prisoner and care for the child until the child reaches its fourth birthday."

Kai raised an eyebrow. "What happens after that?"

"I will take over the raising of the child. So Samantha will no longer be of use to me...and I will kill her."

The color drained from Sam's face.

"And to answer yet another of the blue ninja's earlier questions...yes, the process will hurt."

Fiora raised herself back to tower above them once more. "Does anyone else have any questions?"

No one said anything - not even Jay.

"Good. My minions will be tending to your human needs periodically. I will see you in the morning."


	11. Planning a Villainess' Defeat

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **In my part of the USA, today is a chilly, dreary, rainy Saturday. Hope the weather is nicer where you are!**

 **Shoutouts to Kai Lover911, FirstFandomFangirl, TitaniumMasterOfAquaLightning, StoryMaker7, AveXCninja11, and lovesgod12 for your great comments on the previous chapter!**

 **In the chapter below, there is a mention of a spell by the sorcerer Sebastian. The original account is found in Chapter 6 of** _ **The Fire Within: The Valentine Incident**_ **.**

 **Read on to find out how the captives react after the meeting with their captor...**

* * *

 **Chapter 11 - Planning a Villainess' Defeat**

No one dared speak until the metal door clanged shut after the last tumbleweed soldier left.

Sam swallowed. Was she really never going to get out of here alive? According to Fiora, Sam's days were numbered. Yet Sam did not regret her action of following the ninja to the witch's lair, for she had found her missing fiance, the love of her life, and so would no longer have to endure the agony of not knowing his fate. She only regretted that she would not be able to hug her parents, her little brother Todd, her dear friend Brooke, and the rest of her loved ones one more time.

Kai sensed her distress. "Don't worry, Sam. We'll figure out a way to get you out of here before Fiora finds out you're not - AH!" he winced. The pain in his forearm flared up as he reached out to comfort her.

Zane hurried over to Kai. "I need to finish tending to your wounds after having been interrupted by Fiora."

"I believe Kai was about to say that we'll get you out of here before Fiora realizes you're not pregnant," Cole piped up as he sat down on the stone floor next to Sam, patting her shoulder. "We have roughly 18 hours to defeat Fiora, or at least escape from her, before she tries to brainwash us, so we should be able to come up with a plan."

As the ice ninja began to clip off Kai's torn sleeves and apply bandages around his cut forearms, the others came and took seats on the floor around Kai and Sam in order to discuss escape plans, based on the information Fiora had revealed to them in the past few minutes.

"Fiora may have neutralized our powers, but we could still do Spinjitzu. I'd sure like to send some tumbleweeds tumbling!" Jay commented.

"I'd like to see what's beyond that metal door over there," Lloyd mused.

Cole placed his hand on his stomach. "I wonder when her minions will come back to take care of our 'human needs,' as she put it," he pondered. "My stomach is telling me it's about lunchtime. Jay, get your backpack and let's have some of those snacks now so we can keep up our energy to deal with whatever comes up."

Jay complied, reaching for the bag. "Maybe next time the tumbleweeds show up - or the time after that, depending on how Kai feels - we could get them to open the jail doors, if they weren't going to anyway, and then we could literally blow them away," he commented.

Kai raised the one arm that Zane had finished tending to, while Zane and Sam traded places so that the ice ninja could work on the other arm. "I'll be fine by the time we see the minions again. Thanks to Zane, this arm already feels as good as new," the fire ninja declared. He sought Sam's hand and held it tight.

"If blowing away the tumbleweeds doesn't work, I thought of something," Sam said, speaking for the first time since Fiora left. "Since Fiora's brainwashing won't affect me - 'cause I don't have an elemental being in me - I could pretend that I'm under her spell and then take her down in a surprise attack."

"Well, I hope we're out of here before then," Kai frowned. "If you try to defeat her and it doesn't work, we won't be able to help you, 'cause at that point the rest of us would have our brains fried. But out of curiosity, how would you go about defeating her?"

Sam searched her brain. The memory of filling the coffeemaker on the Bounty earlier in the morning popped into her head. "I could...dump some water from the bottles from Jay's backpack into that bowl she's attached to…"

"Theoretically that would work," Zane agreed as he finished bandaging Kai's other arm, "but I fear it would be too slow of a method. She would probably have time to summon help before she would be totally doused." The platinum-haired ninja began to pack the first aid supplies back in the knapsack.

"Thanks, Zane," Kai said to his brother in appreciation of his medical skills. Then, after having reclined on the ground for such a long while, the red ninja decided to sit up, so Sam helped him do so, moving his fire jacket "pillow" out of the way so he could slide back and lean against the nearby wall.

 _The fire jacket!_ she thought.

"I could smother her with my fire jacket!" Sam announced.

The others contemplated her idea.

Zane slowly nodded. "If the jacket sealed the bowl that apparently serves as her power source, it would cut off her oxygen supply." There were murmurs of agreement from the other ninja - except from Kai.

"Not that I don't agree that sealing the bowl would finish off Fiora, but like I said, we need to get out of here before things get to the point where Sam is the only one left of us who's able to defeat that witch." He carefully put his bandaged arm around Sam, who was sitting next to him. She rested her head on his shoulder, wishing that at this moment they all were sitting around the Bounty's living room chatting about some trivial topic instead of sitting in this jail cell discussing their fates.

"Hey, Zane, once Fiora would die, wouldn't all her spells become undone?" Jay asked. "That's kinda like what happened when Sam took Sebastian's ring off his finger back in February at Lake Ninjago. As soon as she did that, that bubble over the burning concession stand disappeared."

Zane became inert for a moment as he searched his internal databases for that information. "Yes," he finally said, "the scrolls of the ancient Council of Nature make mention of the reversal of spells upon the demise of witches of nature."

"So as soon as Sam would smother Fiora, we'd be back to our normal selves," Jay concluded.

Kai sighed with impatience. "But, guys, what if something goes wrong while she tries to get Fiora, and she fails? I'm afraid of what Fiora would do to her..."

"...because that would certainly be an awful twist of fate if Fiora ordered one of us to kill Sam. I don't want that part of Sam's dream to come true."


	12. Fiora 6, Ninja 0

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Happy May! I am pleased to report that my part of the USA is now seeing sunshine and blue sky, after five straight days of dreary cloudiness!**

 **I appreciate the latest comments from AveXCninja11, StoryMaker7, lovesgod12, taylorjensen517, and Kai Lover911!**

 **Just wanted to mention that one of the incidents to which Kai refers below, the one involving Victor and his gang, will be chronicled in a future chapter of** _ **A Degree in Danger**_ **, written by measuremesky. The second incident he mentions - about Sebastian - was narrated in my story** _ **The Fire Within: The Valentine Incident**_ **.**

 **Jay's favorite choice of toilet paper comes from Chapter 4 of measuremesky's** _ **The Fire Within**_ **.**

 **Read on to find out what happens in the action as we time-skip ahead several hours...**

* * *

 **Chapter 12 - Fiora 6, Ninja 0**

The memory of their failed escape attempt replayed itself in Sam's mind after she had regained consciousness and found herself lying on her back on the floor of their jail cell, her wrists shackled to the wall...

 _A while later after Fiora had left them, a few tumbleweed soldiers had arrived with food. The minions initially planned to simply slide the food trays under the jail bars without opening the jail cell door, but Jay begged them to open it, so that they could take Sam - who sat on the ground holding her abdomen and pretending to be in agony - to get some medical attention. The blue ninja continued the pregnancy charade, convincing the minions that her unborn baby seemed to be in distress. Certainly Fiora would not want anything bad to happen to a future ninja who would be useful to her, he pointed out._

 _As soon as a tumbleweed had opened the door, all the soldiers present were knocked over by the Spinjitzu tornadoes of the ninja brothers. The soldiers' branchy bodies were quickly retrieved, tossed into the cell now vacated by the prisoners, and locked in._

 _The escapees had made their way through the open metal door from which the soldiers had entered the cave area. However, they were immediately presented with a dilemma, for they were faced with a choice of three tunnels to traverse._

 _Zane had said that Pixal, his companion inside his head, recommended the tunnel on the right, for she could detect wind currents several dozen yards inside which might indicate that the route eventually would lead to the earth's surface._

 _However, about a mile into the tunnel, they had unexpectedly encountered Fiora and some minions coming back from a visit to the outside world. The ninja tried to use their powers, but unfortunately the neutralization of their elemental abilities remained in effect in the tunnel._

 _There was nowhere to hide, so the escapees had begun to run back the other way, but Fiora was able to quickly conjure up a thick orange cloud of knockout gas, and violent coughing was the last thing Sam remembered doing before falling to the ground and blacking out._

When Sam had awakened, she found herself lying on her back and her arms extended beyond the top of her head, her wrists bearing shackles which were attached to the nearby jail cell wall. Turning her head, she could see Kai lying unconscious next to her with shackles on his wrists, too. Lifting her head to see beyond him, Sam spotted the others lying in a row on the ground, also knocked out and similarly cuffed.

Zane was lying the farthest away from her. She vaguely remembered him still standing after the rest of them fell, probably because he didn't need to breathe as often as the average human. _Fiora must have found a different way to overcome him_ , she thought.

Sam was now resting her head on the hard stone ground and staring at the ceiling. Other than asking Zane, there was no way for them to know what time it was. She had no idea if they had 12 hours or 12 minutes until Fiora would return to cast her brainwashing spell on them.

If it were indeed already the next day - Thursday - the bride-to-be remembered that she and Misako were supposed to be going shopping today for gifts to give her bridesmaids, to thank them for serving as her bridal attendants. Happy stuff. Never in a million years would Sam have guessed she'd be trapped in a musty jail cell instead, not knowing for certain if she would survive the day.

Tears pooled in Sam's eyes. One tear escaped.

A soft "Hey!" interrupted her thoughts. She turned her head to see Kai, now awake and looking back at her. "Are you OK?" he asked.

She didn't want to discuss what she had just been thinking. "Yeah, just a little chilly from lying on this stone ground," she replied, blinking back the remaining tears that threatened to escape her eyes. She had removed her fire jacket prior to their failed escape attempt, and now it lay in a heap in the corner while her T-shirt and hiking shorts provided inadequate warmth against the cool rocks. "How are YOU doing? How are your arms?" she asked her fiance.

"I'm fine." He scooted his horizontal body over toward her as far as his shackle chains would let him. "I'm a little cold, too. Maybe if…"

"Yeah, I'll move over, too," she said, inching her way toward him.

Sam wasn't surprised he felt chilled. Though in the first few months of their relationship it had seemed counterintuitive to her that the fire ninja was less tolerant of cooler temperatures than the average person, it made sense when she realized he was more tolerant of warmer temps than the average person.

Though the short chains of the shackles caused their arms to remain extended beyond the top of their heads, the couple was able to get close enough to each other to keep each other warm. She rested her head on her left upper arm to face him. He rested his head on his right upper arm to face her.

"Hey, we'll get out of here," Kai quietly said as he leaned forward to give her a kiss of assurance, having guessed the real reason for her distress. "We've gotten out of scrapes before. Remember Victor and his gang on Ninjago U's campus last fall? And how you got Sebastian's ring off his finger last February?"

Sam nodded. Kai was right - those situations had seemed hopeless, yet the enemies had eventually been defeated.

"Well, an orange cloud set us back a little, but we'll find another way," he smiled, with earnestness in his soft brown eyes.

His unfailing optimism was one of his wonderful traits that had made Sam fall in love with him those many months ago.

"I love you, Kai," she whispered, leaning slightly forward to reach his lips. She kissed him, then gave him a smile as she pulled back to once again rest her head on her arm.

Kai leaned forward to return the kiss. "I love you, too, Sam," he mumbled against her lips.

"Hey, you two, get a room!" called a familiar voice from across the cell. Cole had now awakened from the effects of the orange gas.

Kai grinned. "He's just jealous because he'd like to be kissing Brooke right now," he whispered to Sam before rolling over to face the obnoxious earth ninja.

"Excuse me, but if you'll recall, I was here first!" the fire ninja called back.

"Touché!" Jay smirked. Lloyd chuckled. Zane smiled. Everyone else had now regained consciousness.

"You win that one, Sparky," Cole admitted. "So, how is everyone feeling after that little encounter with Fiora's orange cloud?"

"Surprisingly OK, in spite of that nasty stuff. How long were we knocked out, Zane?" Lloyd asked the ice ninja.

Zane accessed his inner CPU. "The current time is 4:28 in the morning, so -"

"What? You mean we're actually all awake before sunrise exercise time?" Jay joked.

Much eye-rolling occurred at Jay's attempt at humor.

Zane continued. "So you became unconscious thirteen hours and eleven minutes ago. I was incapacitated one minute after you were. I did not succumb to the orange gas as you all did, but Fiora conjured up another substance which put Pixal and me in sleep mode."

"Fiora conjured up a lot of stuff yesterday," Lloyd commented, rattling his shackles. "Guess she's serious about wanting us to stay put."

Cole's stomach growled. "Well, I wouldn't mind some breakfast magically appearing in front of me right now. Do you realize the last time we ate was yesterday, shortly after we got here, when we had those snacks from Jay's backpack?"

"I'd like to see her conjure up a bathroom. I kinda need to use one, and right now I don't care whether or not it's stocked with Navy toilet paper," Jay whined, referring to his favorite brand of bathroom tissue.

Murmurs of agreement echoed around the cell.


	13. The Chances for Escape Become Slim

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Howdy pardners! I'm back!**

 **In my single-chapter tale,** _ **The Decision of The Ninjago City Mayor**_ **, which I posted on May 4, I had said I would take a break from Ninjago fan fiction. I needed time to think about some personal changes I want to make in my life. I'm happy to say that I made a choice about what direction I want to go in, and I'm happy to say that I love Ninjago and your stories too much to leave the fandom! Because to be honest, I have been doing some reading on this site during these past 2+ weeks, but I just haven't posted comments. And I even finished the last three chapters of this story that you are now reading. After today, look for updates on Wednesday and Friday of this week.**

 **I would like to thank the nine commenters on** _ **The Decision of The Ninjago City Mayor**_ **for your sweet and kind wishes for me: taylorjensen517, StoryMaker7, lovesgod12, AveXCninja11, TitaniumMasterOfAquaLightning, SwimmerNinja13, Naruby7, FirstFandomFangirl, and Kairocksrainbow. You are awesome!**

 **And I would like to thank StoryMaker7, Kai Lover911, lovesgod12, and AveXCninja11 for their comments on the previous chapter of this tale you are now reading. I so appreciate you!**

 **A note on something below: Kai's sensitive hearing was demonstrated in Chapter 31 of measuremesky's** _ **The Fire Within.**_

 **Read on to learn what happens to the fire witch's prisoners…**

* * *

 **Chapter 13 - The Chances for Escape Become Slim**

Before another hour had passed, Jay and his fellow prisoners had actually gotten the opportunity to use a bathroom.

A tumbleweed soldier had arrived at their jail cell and tossed an orange powder through the jail bars onto the feet of the ninja brothers, explaining that a spell allowing them to tend to their human needs would take effect in eight seconds and last for eight minutes after that. An orange fog suddenly filled the air and cleared just as suddenly, revealing themselves to be standing in a replica of the luxurious, spacious multi-stall men's restroom on the lobby level of the Adams Hotel in downtown Ninjago City.

All the spare time they had was used to search for an escape route through a vent or a pipe, but to no avail. The time remaining until the start of the persuasion process was dwindling, and they were starting to get desperate, especially Kai.

At the eight-minute mark, the orange fog filled the air once again, and when it dissipated, they once again found themselves shackled and lying on the stone floor of the jail cell. The tumbleweed soldier was gone.

"Well, at least that restroom had quality toilet paper," Jay commented.

Kai looked around. "Wait, where's Sam?" he exclaimed worriedly. The blonde college student was missing from the small enclosure.

Seconds later, a yellow fog rose on one side of the jail cell, and when it disappeared, Sam stood there in front of a cart of bowls, spoons, and a pot of something steaming. She had a bewildered look on her face.

"There you are, Sam! Where'd you go?" Kai called out.

Sam shook her head to clear her mind. "Right after you guys disappeared, that soldier sprinkled yellow powder on me, and I found myself in a ladies' room like at the Adams Hotel. Then when I was done using it, I walked through a door into a room like a kitchen, and a tumbleweed told me that there would be eight minutes for me to serve this breakfast, for us to eat it, and for me to collect the dishes back on the cart. And then I suddenly got transported back here."

"Sweet!" Cole was getting his wish of having a breakfast placed in front of him. "What are we having?"

Sam opened the lid of the pot. "Oatmeal."

"Oatmeal, huh?" Cole tilted his head. "Well, it's not blueberry pancakes, but it'll do. We'd better hurry and eat up!"

The shackle chains were short, so the young men had to carefully maneuver themselves from a recumbent position into a sitting position against the wall in back of them. They had already discovered they could do this before the tumbleweed soldier showed up with the orange powder. In the meantime, Sam ladled the oatmeal in the bowls and began to distribute them. The brothers had to hunch over slightly to feed themselves, due to the short length of their wrist shackles.

"You know, guys and gal," Jay spoke up, "I wished for a bathroom and one appeared, and Cole wished for breakfast and it appeared, and Kai looked for Sam and she appeared. I think we should give the power of positive thinking another chance, even though it didn't work the way I wanted it to on Chen's island. So, Zane, isn't there something you and Pixal could do to prevent your mind from being controlled?"

"We will explore our options, but I fear that because Fiora is already aware that my life systems are slightly different than yours, she will be making special arrangements to ensure that we are just as incapacitated as you," Zane replied.

Jay shrugged. "OK, well, I'm still going to keep thinking positively." He began to hum a cheerful tune.

* * *

An hour had passed since the breakfast supplies had disappeared in a yellow fog, and the desperate prisoners were running out of time and ideas for escaping. Jay had even stopped humming his odes to the power of positive thinking.

Though none of the ninja team members liked the idea of leaving behind their fellow brothers in a dangerous situation, they decided that since they were technically not facing death nor physical injury, it would be best if they each focused on securing their own individual freedom, with the hope that if at least one of them could reach safety, they could enlist Sensei Wu's wisdom and Nya's technological knowhow in saving the rest of them.

And because the situation that Kai had hoped to avoid - where Sam would have to face Fiora alone - was looking more and more like it would occur, the blonde college student spent some time practicing the flipping of her fire jacket from her shoulders and the flinging of it over an imaginary bowl. She received verbal coaching from her ninja friends, who sat shackled to the back wall of the jail cell while she remained free to move around.

But now, not much talking was going on in the jail cell as each of them quietly contemplated ways of escape...and mentally prepared themselves for the pain Fiora promised they would feel in the brainwashing process, should they fail to escape.

Now that Sam was no longer handcuffed, she nestled next to Kai, resting her head on his shoulder and hugging his waist. His short shackles prevented him from hugging her back, but he rested his head on hers, enjoying her sweet strawberry scent. Neither of them said much.

Sam's fire jacket was draped around her shoulders, with the sleeves loosely tied around her neck. She was prepared for the opportunity to take down the fire witch.

Kai suddenly lifted his head from Sam's golden tresses and announced, "I hear drums."

Sam heard nothing, but she knew that Kai, being a ninja, could hear what the average civilian couldn't. She had first learned of this trait on the day he had tried to kiss her for the first time on their first picnic, before he had been interrupted by a rustling noise. At that time, he was able to hear the voices of the culprits - his nosy brothers - when she was not able to hear anyone talking.

"I hear drums, too," Jay stated. "Sounds just like those drums at Chen's ceremony when he took our powers that time."

Soon Sam herself was able to hear the faint sound of several drums pounding a rhythm, all beating together.

The drumming grew louder when the metal door to the cave area opened.

The prisoners watched as a procession of a half-dozen tumbleweed drummers filed into the cave area and formed a semicircle around the shiny tiles in the center of the floor area, continuing to pound a strong rhythm.

Following them were six tumbleweeds, each carrying a highbacked metal chair. They lined up the chairs in a row, facing the direction of the circle, then marched off to the side and stood at attention.

Next came six more minions, each carrying a pillow on which rested a black metal ring - the cerebrum circlets that each of them were about to wear. The ring was meant to be put over a human head and cover the eyes while resting on the ears and the bridge of the nose, similar to a Halloween mask. Two orange diamond shaped metal pieces on the front formed the image of evil eyes.

At the sight of the menacing looking circlets, Sam gripped Kai's waist a little tighter.

These minions took their places behind each of the highbacked chairs. The drumming became faster. And louder. And even more louder.

All of a sudden, it stopped.

A minion announced, "All hail Mistress Fiora!"

Fiora, with the help of her personal bowl-carrying assistant, entered the room, filling the ceiling space just as she did at yesterday's meeting with the ninja team. The captives watched as the tumbleweed set the ornate bowl in the center of the shiny tiles.

The villainess moved her face close to the jail bars to glare at the prisoners.

"I trust you rested well after your pathetic escape attempt," she chuckled. "You needed to get plenty of rest, for I have a lot of work lined up for you to do."

"You're a piece of work yourself, Fiora!" Kai shouted.

The witch spotted the red ninja in the group and focused on him with her terrifying large orange eyes.

"I see that your rebellious attitude continues, master of fire," she commented in her raspy voice. "Perhaps I can put it to good use when you join my legion of minions."

Before the prisoners could wonder what her comment meant, Fiora's eyes temporarily disappeared. A few seconds later they reappeared, and five beams of orange light shone from the flame symbol on her forehead. Each ninja was touched by a beam, and their shackles unsnapped from their wrists.

The young men stretched their cramped arms in relief. "The power of positive thinking," Jay softly hummed under his breath.

"Stand up, everyone!" the villainess ordered.

They slowly complied. Sam nonchalantly checked the fire jacket sleeves tied around her neck to ensure that the garment remained secured in place.

"Now put your hands behind your backs," she commanded. After they did so, she shot orange light beams at them, and they discovered that their wrists were handcuffed once again, even Sam's.

Jay frowned. "OK, positive thinking didn't work so well just now," he muttered.

The drummers began to beat a slow, steady, ominous beat.

A tumbleweed unlocked the jail cell door and pushed it open. It entered the enclosure and approached Zane, shoving him out of the cell. One by one the rest of the ninja were herded out, each being guided by his own tumbleweed escort, with Kai being the last in the group of young men. Sam was made to follow right behind him by her own escort.

One by one, each of the ninja brothers was pushed into his own highbacked metal chair. Zane. Cole. Lloyd. Jay. Once each of them had been seated, Fiora shot a beam of orange light at them, causing chains to slither around their ankles and their necks, securing the victims to their chairs.

Just before Kai's escort could push him in his chair, the fire ninja spun around to face Sam. He sought her lips and kissed her hard for as long as he could, before their escorts tore them apart. When she looked into his eyes after their kiss, she saw worry - and guilt.

"I'm sorry I couldn't protect you from this moment, Sam!" he called out over the banging of the drums as his escort shoved him forcefully into the chair.

"By your side is right where I want to be, Kai!" Sam called back, her throat tightening with emotion as she was roughly guided to sit down in her own chair.

Fiora shot beams of light at them, and chains of cold steel wrapped themselves around the two prisoners, binding them to their seats.

Before the cerebrum circlets were placed on the prisoners' heads to cover their eyes, Kai and Sam looked at each other one more time.

"I love you, Sam!" Kai shouted to her over the din of the drums.

"I love you, too, Kai!" she shouted back, a sob in her voice.

Then her circlet was placed over her eyes, and she saw only darkness.

Seconds later, she heard Fiora utter a terrifying screech and begin to babble in an unrecognizable language.

The brainwashing process had begun.


	14. The Revenge of the Fire Witch

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **It's Wednesday (at least it is here in the midwestern USA), and as promised, here is the next chapter of this tale. The final chapter will appear on Friday.**

 **As always, thank you, readers, for taking the time to peruse my story! And thanks to lovesgod12, TitaniumMasterOfAquaLightning, AveXCninja11, StoryMaker7, and FirstFandomFangirl for posting such sweet and humorous comments about the previous chapter!**

 **As this chapter begins, the brainwashing process has finished...**

* * *

 **Chapter 14 - The Revenge of the Fire Witch**

Finally it was over, and there was silence.

No more drumming. No more raspy voice chanting a spell in an unknown language. No more awful moans of agony from her friends.

No more throbbing pain in her head.

Though Sam had endured extreme discomfort in the area right between her eyes, she knew her mind had not been affected by Fiora's spell. She still knew who she was and she still retained her memories. But she dared not let the fire witch know that the brainwashing spell was ineffective on her.

The cerebrum circlet remained over Sam's eyes, preventing her from seeing anything, so she relied on her ears to follow what was going on around her.

"The spell is complete," she heard Fiora announce.

After several seconds, Sam heard the clattering of metal upon the stone ground several yards away.

"Minion, remove the cerebrum circlet from the white ninja," she heard Fiora command. _Fiora must have unchained Zane from his chair just now,_ Sam thought.

"Ninja of ice, rise," she then heard Fiora say. "What is your name?" the witch asked.

"I...am...Zane," the ninja answered in a monotone voice.

"Zane, I order you to walk through that metal door and stand there to await my next command."

"Yes, Mistress Fiora," he replied in the same listless manner.

Sam could feel a slight movement in the air currents as he walked by her chair on his way out the door.

Fiora reenacted the same scene with Cole, Lloyd, and Jay, obviously going down the line of seated ninjas. Hearing her friends speak in unfeeling, emotionless voices was scary to the blonde girl.

Kai was next. But before the evil apparition dealt with the red ninja, she issued a command to dismiss all her minions except for the one who had carried her bowl.

Once they had left, with the last departing soldier closing the metal door upon exiting through it, Sam again heard the clattering of metal falling upon the stone ground. Then Fiora said to her assistant, "Remove the cerebrum circlet from the red ninja and place it under his chair."

The minion apparently complied, for Kai - like his brothers before him - was instructed to rise and state his name.

"I...am...Kai."

Kai's voice was lifeless and filled Sam with chills of fear.

At this point, Fiora deviated from the sequence of commands she had given the other ninja.

"Kai, I want you to form a ball of fire in your hand."

"Yes, Mistress Fiora," the red ninja replied, and Sam could hear the puff of ignition which indicated that the fireball had been created.

 _The ninjas' powers are working again_ , Sam observed.

"Kai, from now on you will be my personal assistant. I sent most of my minions away for I did not wish them to see you carry out my next command. Kai, use the ball of fire to incinerate this remaining minion."

"Yes, Mistress Fiora."

Sam stifled a gasp at the unexpected harsh command. Though she had no love for the tumbleweed, her heart broke at the whimper uttered by the soldier just before the fireball consumed it. The smell of something burning permeated the air.

The only beings now left in the cave area were Fiora, Kai, and Sam.

And the focus was now on Sam.

Not unexpectedly, the blonde prisoner's metal restraints slipped to the stone floor.

"Kai, remove the cerebrum circlet from Samantha and place it under her chair."

"Yes, Mistress Fiora."

Sam's heart began to pound. The time had come for her to practice her best acting skills. As Kai lifted the metal ring from Sam's head, allowing her to finally see her surroundings again, she stared straight ahead as a zombie would.

"Samantha, rise!" Fiora ordered. Sam complied, staring straight ahead.

Fiora moved close to Sam and studied the girl's face, as if the witch were searching for something. Sam kept gazing forward and willed herself not to tremble in fear.

The witch concluded her search. "Samantha, I order you to walk through the metal door to join the other ninja and await your next command."

"Yes, Mistress Fiora," Sam replied in her best monotone voice before walking toward the door.

 _Now's my chance to smother her_ , Sam thought as she walked behind the apparition, who was now occupied with giving Kai instructions regarding the responsibilities of a personal assistant.

Once out of the line of Fiora's sight, Sam slowly untied the sleeves of her fire jacket from her neck. Ever so quietly, she edged close to the bowl. When she was within striking distance, she swiftly twirled the jacket off her shoulders with the intent of covering the bowl.

However, she hadn't taken into account the fact that in Kai's brainwashed state, he was committed to protecting the witch of fire.

Because he was facing in Sam's direction and could see what she was doing, he shot a fireball at her. The jacket that she held in front of her protected her from the fiery missile, but she let out a scream of surprise.

That's when she noticed that the whites of Kai's eyes were tinted orange.

Fiora twisted her face around to glare at Sam, her own orange eyes reflecting fury.

"You lied!" the witch hissed. "You were never carrying the fire master's child in your womb! At first I thought your eyes hadn't turned orange because of the young age of the child, but now I know there never was a child, for the persuasion process had no effect on you!"

"Now you will pay for deceiving me! Kai, seize her!"

"Yes, Mistress Fiora."

"No, Kai!" Sam ran for the metal door, but escape from Kai was futile, just like it was three days ago when he had playfully chased her around the Bounty in his sweaty uniform after she had poured him iced tea.

He grabbed her from behind and dragged her back in front of Fiora as she struggled mightily to free herself. "No! No! Snap out of it, Kai!" she implored him.

"Kai, put her back in her chair and hold her there!" the fire witch commanded.

"Yes, Mistress Fiora."

He shoved the wriggling girl into the chair and restrained her until Fiora shot a beam of light and conjured up shackles to secure her to her seat once again.

"Kai, put your hands around Samantha's neck...and kill her!"

"Yes, Mistress Fiora."

Sam began to cry as the brainwashed fire ninja walked behind her chair and stood behind her back.

"Don't do this, Kai!" she pleaded. "Fight the spell! You're Kai Smith! You're a ninja! You and I are getting married soon!"

His hands encircled her neck. A stream of tears rolled down her cheeks.

"I love you, Kai!" she sobbed, just before he squeezed.

The nightmare she had dreamed two nights ago was now coming true.

 _Oxygen...I need oxygen! Can't...breathe!_ was Sam's last thought before the blackness enveloped her.

The brainwashed fire ninja tilted his head in curiosity as he felt a sensation on his hands. Sam's tears.

 _The clear liquid oozing from Samantha's eyes is dripping on me. It's...burning my skin. It's painful!_

 _Wait...why are my hands around Sam's neck?_

The tears of the fire ninja's fiancee had broken the spell on him.

Kai immediately removed his hands from her. The girl's chin dropped onto her chest. Only the chains kept her body upright in her seat.

Kai quickly knelt down next to her chair. "Sam!" he shouted, shaking her shoulder. "Wake up!"

"Curses!" Fiora rasped. "The power of soulmate tears! I haven't dealt with humans for so long that I neglected to consider that. How could I be so stupid as to forget the restorative property of such tears!"

Upset that he could not rouse his fiancee from her comatose state, Kai slowly stood up to face the apparition, anger burning in his eyes. "You evil witch!" he hissed as he formed fireballs in his hands. "I'll make sure you never cause any more pain to anyone ever again!"

"Wait, my dear Kai," Fiora began in a gentle, reconciliatory tone. "Before you act rashly, let me state that when I become the Queen of Ninjago in the very near future, I can make you the High Prince, and Samantha can rule by your side as your princess. Agree to my offer and I will heal her."

"Heal her and let her go!" the fire ninja growled. "This fight is between you and me!"

"Hear me out, ninja of fire," Fiora cautioned him. "You do realize that as the High Prince of Ninjago, you'll have great powers. You will be considered even greater than the green ninja!"

Kai was silent. Upon hearing the apparition's words, he found himself being tempted, but seconds later he berated himself inwardly. Why, even after all this time, did he still find the prestige of being the green ninja alluring? He knew he already enjoyed great things in life - a loving sister, a caring sensei, loyal brothers, and a beautiful young woman who loved him deeply.

But before he contemplated his inner struggle further, he realized that Fiora hadn't called for reinforcements to overpower him. Then it dawned on him.

"You're stalling for time, Fiora. What's going on?"

"Very perceptive, Kai. That's another reason why I made a good decision to choose you as my assistant," Fiora commented. "You see, the activation of the healing power of soulmate tears not only reverses spells on the human being touched by them, but when a spell of mine is reversed, my ability to issue commands and spells is inhibited for 88 seconds. So you see, I am completely at your mercy right now."

He silently wondered why she was admitting this. Was she trying to appeal to his sense of injustice at harming defenseless beings?

But then he thought of the firefighters who had been putting their lives on the line for weeks now. And he thought of the endangerment of the water supply for the Ninjago citizenry. Though they were defenseless against Fiora's powers, she had not shown mercy to them and she did not intend to.

"The way I see it, Fiora, you've been trying to destroy Ninjago's way of life, but your efforts just backFIRED!"

Kai hurled his fireballs into Fiora's ornate bowl, igniting a backburn fire which began to consume all the fuel in her bowl. Now that she could not summon an assistant to replenish the material, her life source would soon be used up, and she would die.

"Congratulations, Kai!" Fiora rasped sarcastically. "You may have dealt me a fatal strike, but I am not leaving this realm called Life without casting my own strike upon you!" The villainess chuckled evilly as the fuel for her own power was burned away by Kai's flames. "For though my spells will soon be reversed, and the effects of them will vanish, I can choose one effect of one spell to remain in existence upon my demise. And I choose for Samantha to remain in a coma!"

As the fire witch's orange eyes and forehead symbol faded and disappeared, Fiora cackled loudly, and her evil chuckles echoed in the cave area. The flames in the ornate bowl suddenly leaped up toward the ceiling, and sparks sprayed everywhere. With his bandaged forearms raised to protect his face, Kai stepped in front of the inert Sam, shielding her from the shower of burning cinders.

Then just as suddenly, the flames calmed down to glowing embers, and the cackling dwindled away. The funnel of black smoke slowly lifted up from the bowl and Fiora's cloud thinned out. The cave area was now eerily quiet, making the sudden abrupt clattering of metal upon the stone ground especially startling to the red ninja. He whirled around to see that Sam's metal bindings had come apart. With her body no longer supported, she slid out of the chair and slumped to the ground.

Kai quickly scooped up the unresponsive girl and held her in his strong arms.

Turning around again, he watched as Fiora's black smoke dissipated. When the last thin wisp had floated away and disappeared, the torches on the cave walls flickered violently.

Sensing something was about to happen, the red ninja tightly clutched his bride-to-be against his chest.

Then the torches gave out, and the couple was plunged into darkness.


	15. Hope is Rekindled

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:**

 **Hey, readers! Thanks for having taken the time to check out this fire witch tale!**

 **A big shoutout to FirstFandomFangirl, TitaniumMasterOfAquaLightning, Kai Lover911, lovesgod12, and StoryMaker7 for commenting on the previous chapter. You made me smile!**

 **Now that this tale is complete, my plan is to continue working on my AU story,** _ **The Fire Within a Ninjago Soldier**_ **. I have already written the chapters in which Kai is captured by the enemy army, as well as the chapters in which Kai crosses paths with Skylor, but those chapters take place five and six months after Chapter 19, and there's a lot of action that will take place before then. So it's time to tackle the next situations of our favorite cowboys and their ladies! Not sure exactly when I'll post Chapter 20 - hopefully by mid-June!**

 **And, of course, the final chapter of the story below will be followed up in the future by a tale of Kai and Sam's honeymoon adventure! Oops, did I just spoil the ending of this story by revealing that Sam is going to recover from her comatose state? Then again, was there any doubt that she'd end up being OK? XD**

 **Enjoy the conclusion of** _ **The Fire Within: The Fire Witch Incident**_ **. Take care, everyone!**

 **\- MNC 5/27/2016**

* * *

 **Chapter 15 - Hope is Rekindled**

The next thing Kai knew, he was standing outdoors in a lushly wooded area, still holding the unconscious Sam in his arms. They were now in the company of the other ninja brothers, who looked bewildered. All of them were being drenched by a pouring rain.

"Kai! Sam! There you guys are!" Jay exclaimed, shielding his eyes from the raindrops. "When we got back control of our minds outside the metal door, we wondered where you two were, and then Zane thought that the reason we got control of our minds again was because Sam defeated Fiora, and then suddenly everything went black, and -"

Then he noticed the stricken look on the red ninja's face and the unresponsive state of the girl in his arms. "What happened to Sam?"

Kai swallowed. "I-I hurt her while I was still brainwashed. So we need to get her some help right away!" He adjusted her body in his arms to minimize the splash of precipitation on her face.

"Definitely!" Cole agreed, brushing his wet sideswept bangs out of his eyes. "Zane, can you tell us where we are right now, and if the Bounty is nearby?"

Lloyd spoke up. "Hey, that looks like Three Boulders way over there! The trees look a lot more leafy than they did yesterday, but I'm guessing we've ended up basically in the same place where we first got sucked into the mountain."

Zane quickly conducted an analysis of their location. "Lloyd is correct. We are indeed on the east side of Oracle Mountain. The Bounty appears to be moored at the wildfire combat staging area."

"OK, then let's follow the trail back to the clearing where there's room to activate our dragons," Cole suggested, raising his voice so as to be heard over the rush of water. "Then we can fly back to the Bounty. The weather conditions aren't ideal for the dragons, so we'll have to be extra careful."

Following the trail back to the clearing was proving to be a messy affair, as the rain was turning the path into a sea of mud. The brothers took turns helping Kai maneuver the slippery route while transporting his beloved fiancee. As they traveled, the fire ninja relayed to them what had happened in the cave area, starting from that awful moment when he regained control of his mind and discovered his hands were wrapped around Sam's neck.

The other ninja brothers sympathized with Kai's distress. They assured him that he had done the right thing by refusing Fiora's offer to heal Sam. They reminded him that by vanquishing the villainess, he caused her evil spells on the land of Ninjago to be reversed and her spells' effects to vanish - all except for the one still existing in his arms. The warriors increased their resolve to get their brother's betrothed one to safety as soon as possible, in spite of the inclement weather conditions.

"Wow, I can't remember a past rainstorm as heavy as this one," Jay commented, twisting the front of his uniform to wring out excess rainwater as they all moved along. "I wish that all the rain Fiora prevented from reaching the earth these past several weeks didn't have to come down all at once!"

Fortunately Cole soon made a helpful discovery that was lying along their path.

"The stretcher! I dropped it when that wall of fire was trying to get us all. We can use it to carry Sam!"

The earth ninja spread out the the two wooden poles, and the fire ninja gently set down his bride-to-be on the canvas fabric.

"Hey, Kai, the cuts on your arms from the beating by the tumbleweeds are all gone now," Lloyd observed when the red ninja had emptied his arms. Indeed, the rain-soaked bandages were sliding off, revealing that the fire master's forearms were uninjured.

With Kai and Cole carrying each end of the stretcher, the group passed Three Boulders and negotiated the steep trail by the rock wall dropoff. At that point, the most arduous part of their journey was behind them, and they soon reached the clearing. Once Kai had summoned and mounted his dragon, his brothers lifted Sam from the stretcher and placed her in a sitting position onto the beast in front of Kai. Then they summoned and mounted their own creatures.

With one arm around his unconscious fiancee, and the other arm steering his dragon, Kai flew with his brothers in the rain back to the wildfire combat staging area.

* * *

The young men were relieved to once again see the Bounty, which was still parked where it had landed yesterday morning. Lloyd made his way ahead of the group in order to board the vessel first and alert Sensei Wu and Nya to set up one of the ship's extra cots in the girls' bedroom for Sam. The teacher and the samurai were elated to learn that the missing team members were no longer in the clutches of the fire witch, but they delayed their questions in order to focus on the needs of the injured college student. Cole and Kai worked together in the pouring rain to get the unresponsive girl into the living quarters on the ship and place her on the cot next to her bed.

The ninja brothers were not able to rest just yet. Not more than ten minutes before they had arrived back at the Bounty, Sensei Wu had returned from a brief news conference held by Chief Vincent. The wildfire combat chief informed the assembled reporters that the sudden heavy rains were beginning to produce mudslides on the mountains affected by fires, and he was receiving reports of trapped firefighters who needed to be rescued.

Four of the ninja quickly left the Bounty, hurrying over to the headquarters building to find out from Chief Vincent where the trapped firefighters were located. Using the elemental dragons, the warriors planned to fly the emergency personnel out of danger.

Kai stayed behind long enough to wait with Sensei in the living room while Nya replaced Sam's soaked apparel with dry bedclothes in the girls' room. When that task was complete, the red ninja entered the girls' room and took his fiancee in his strong arms, gently transferring her from the cot to her bed.

Nya pointed to Sam's necklace on the nightstand, where she had put it after Sam had thrown it on the ground yesterday.

"The ring crystal is still glowing," she observed.

"Until I can talk to Sam again," he said quietly, "I'll still be in distress."

Kai gave the unconscious blond girl a sorrowful look, then turned to leave to answer the call of duty.

* * *

Hours later, with all the forest fires doused by the rainstorm and all the victims rescued from the mudslides, the Bounty was making its way back to Ninjago City. The ninjas' mission was finished.

However, Sam remained unconscious on her bed. Zane examined her and concurred with the physician on duty at the wildfire headquarters that her neck injuries would heal naturally on their own within the next few weeks. Zane refrained from specifically mentioning that her injuries would heal before the wedding day, for there existed the possibility of postponing - or canceling - the ceremony due to the bride's unresponsiveness, and Zane did not wish to upset the betrothed master of fire.

Sensei Wu brewed a special medicinal tea and held the cup under her nose so that she could inhale the fragrant, healing aroma, but that did not awaken her.

There was nothing left to do but wait and see what would happen in the next few hours while they headed back to their home city. The Bounty's occupants found various duties to keep them busy until they reached their destination.

Kai chose to remain seated at Sam's bedside and continue to keep watch over her. Sensei allowed him to do so for a while but advised him that before the Bounty landed, the teacher and his pupil would need to discuss how they would break the news to Sam's parents regarding their daughter's condition. The news cameras at the wildfire combat staging area had recorded the return of the ninja brothers and the incapacitated female, and the video footage had already been broadcast over the television networks. No doubt Sam's parents would have seen these reports and been relieved to see their future son-in-law unharmed, but they would have felt horrified to witness the helpless state of their first-born child.

As Sensei left the bedroom, Kai's guilt over harming Sam weighed heavily on his mind. He turned to look at Sam and gently stroked her golden blonde tresses.

"Oh, Sam," he whispered. "Please wake up. Your family needs you. I need you. You need to get better for our wedding."

He sighed heavily. "You were so clever to figure out a way to follow us to Fiora's lair by thinking up that pregnancy story," he continued, "and you were so brave to be willing to defeat that powerful witch all by yourself with just your fire jacket, knowing we couldn't help you," he told her.

His throat tightened with emotion.

"And this is how you got repaid. I did this to you. I gave you those ugly bruises on your neck. And now you're in a coma."

His tears began to fall.

"I'm so sorry, Sam! Please forgive me!"

He took her hand and brought it against his tear-stained cheek.

"I love you, Sam!"

How he wished his tears could make her normal again, just as her tears had made him normal. But soulmate tears could only reverse a spell; they could not counteract an effect of a spell. Her condition had occurred due to the brainwashing spell cast upon him. And no one knew how to negate a spell's effect.

Kai decided he'd better leave the room for a while before he totally broke down. Still clutching Sam's hand, he stood up from the bedside chair.

"I-I need to talk to Sensei now. But I'll ask one of the others to sit with you till I come back," he told her. He leaned down and kissed her lips, then smiled at her through his tears, preparing to let go of her hand and leave her side for a short period of time.

However, to his astonishment, he watched as her eyelids fluttered open, revealing drowsy blue eyes which looked back at him.

"Sam! You're awake!" he gasped as he quickly sat down in the bedside chair once again, clutching her hand tighter.

"What happened?" she asked in a groggy, hoarse voice.

"Fiora's dead. The drought is over. Ninjago is safe," he smiled through his tears, which were now falling due to happiness. "You're safe on the Bounty now," he added, lightly tracing her cheek with his free hand.

 _The power of a soulmate kiss broke the last effect of Fiora's spells!_ he realized as he wiped his eyes.

"I wasn't sure if I'd ever get to talk to you again," he admitted, now clutching her hand with both of his.

"Well, I couldn't sleep through the wedding. If I did, all that time spent addressing wedding invitations would be wasted," she croaked, using the same joke he had made when she first saw him in Fiora's cave yesterday. Kai grinned, recognizing the joke. His spirits soared, observing that she must be starting to feel better.

The effort of speaking the words taxed Sam's vocal cords, however, and she coughed several times. "It's hard for me to talk," she apologized with a croak still in her voice after the coughing subsided.

He winced at her comment, for he felt guilty at being the cause of her discomfort. "Then don't talk. Just rest," he admonished her.

In spite of her weakened state, her beautiful blue eyes seemed to dance as she gave him a small smile. "Or how about we kiss some more?" she whispered.

Kai's heart leaped. Sam appeared to have forgiven him for what he had done to her. But he had to be sure.

"Sam...I'm so sorry for what I did to you back there at Oracle Mountain. I -"

"Stop it, Kai! You couldn't avoid obeying Fiora's command!" she whisper-yelled at him. "Now obey MY command...and kiss me!" she smiled.

He leaned forward to seek her sweet lips, ever so glad to comply with her order.

Unbeknownst to them at that moment, the ring crystal stopped glowing. The distress that had plagued the master of fire for 48 hours had finally disappeared.

The dangerous forest fires of northwestern Ninjago had been doused, but one hot fire remained burning...

...the fire of love within the hearts of a red ninja and his woman.

 ******** THE END ********


End file.
